With community content from Zeal, LookSmart expects to double the rate of noncommercial site additions by year’s end, increasing the scale and quality of the directory, while keeping cost structures flat.
We are excited by the enthusiastic response and commitment we’re seeing from members of the community who are making significant contributions to the directory, stated Kevin Berk, senior vice president of product. Our noncommercial content enables our partners to produce superior search results that complement our commercial and paid listings. For example, a baseball fan can do a search on the San Francisco Giants and find noncommercial sites added by the community and the editorial team, such as fan pages for players like Barry Bonds, local news coverage, and guides to the ballpark as well as commercial listings for Giants tickets and merchandise.
Community content will complement LookSmart’s existing noncommercial listings as well as editorial content and paid listings, enhancing the user experience throughout the directory network. The contributions of Zeal’s community will be maintained and supported by LookSmart’s professional editorial team, maximizing the quality and scale of the LookSmart directory.
Members of the community contribute to a wide range of noncommercial categories, ranging from broad topics, such as history, languages, and theology, to more specific categories, such as animal shelters, budgerigars, chambers of commerce, PlayStation tips, and orchids.
LookSmart acquired Zeal Media, Inc., the leader in community directory technology in October 2000. LookSmart directories now have more than 2.8 million URLs organized into 260,000 categories. LookSmart is committed to editorial integrity and does not accept porn, hate, or spam in its directories.
