LookSmart Surpasses 25,000 Small Business Listings Mark After Just Six Months

Rapid Growth of Performance-Based Product Contributes to Double-Digit Growth In Company's Core Listings

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LookSmart (Nasdaq: LOOK; ASX: LOK), a global leader in search marketing, announced today that more than 25,000 of its Small Business Listings have been sold since the product launched on April 9, 2002.

Small Business Listings are LookSmart's first performance-based, search inclusion product for small businesses, designed to provide cost-effective customer acquisition and easy campaign management. Search inclusion helps businesses maximize search engine marketing campaigns by allowing them to show up for all relevant searches, even if they haven't selected those exact keywords.

For example, an advertiser who is relevant for the keyword "jeans" could also be relevant and appear in search results for terms like "boot cut," "button-fly jeans," "501s(TM)," "play clothes," or even the misspelling "jeens." Search inclusion allows advertisers to be displayed for all relevant searches without the high cost and administrative burden of bidding for and managing large numbers of keywords.

"The low, flat cost-per-click for LookListings Small Business beats paying more than $0.75 per click for terms like 'magnetic bracelet' on bid-for-placement services," said Jay Varon of AceMagnetics.com. "Plus, I like to actively manage my account, so the reporting appeals to me as well."

"As a search engine marketing professional, I demand high return on investment (ROI) for my clients," said Barbara Coll, CEO of search engine optimization firm WebMama.com. "LookSmart Small Business Listings provide that return, so I sign up every single client as part of every SEO package I sell. My business-to-business clients especially get great visitor traffic at a very low cost."

LookSmart launched the new Small Business Listings platform on April 9, replacing its previous Site Submit and Site Promote products. Benefits of the new platform include:

    -- Cost-effectiveness:  Pay-for-performance pricing, based on a very
       competitive cost-per-click. Advertisers pay only when a user clicks
       through to their Web site-there is no charge for impressions or page
       views.
    -- High volume of sales leads:  Businesses receive traffic from
       LookSmart's entire network of distribution partners including
       Microsoft's MSN, About.com, AltaVista, Netscape, CNN.com, InfoSpace,
       RoadRunner and more than 100 other portals and ISPs, reaching 77% or
       nearly four out of five Internet users
    -- Targeting:  Advertisers may select up to 10 specific keywords or
       phrases for increased relevancy, better targeting and improved
       conversion potential at no additional cost.
    -- Easy to manage:  Fixed CPC pricing means there is no auction to
       monitor, and businesses can plan their budgets in advance. Online
       reporting provides straight-forward program administration and ROI
       analysis.

About LookSmart

LookSmart helps businesses of all sizes harness the power of search marketing to generate cost-effective sales leads. LookSmart search listings enable businesses to reach 77 percent* or nearly four out of five U.S. Internet users, through top portals and ISPs including Microsoft's MSN, About.com, AltaVista, Netscape Netcenter, CNN.com, Road Runner, Cox Interactive Media, InfoSpace (Excite, Dogpile, MetaCrawler, WebCrawler), CNET's Search.com and search services such as Inktomi. BTLookSmart, LookSmart's joint venture with British Telecom, provides search marketing solutions in the U.K. and Japan. LookSmart is based in San Francisco, California, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Montreal, London, Melbourne and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.LookSmart.com