Under a new agreement, marketing software maker Engage will incorporate AltaVista‘s search engine technology into its content management offering.
The companies, both owned by Andover, Mass., Internet investor CMGI , will also collaborate
on sales and marketing of the product, ContentServer 7.
“The average marketing professional spends a fifth of his or her time searching for the correct content or images for a particular marketing, advertising, or
promotional campaign,” said Christopher Cuddy, Engage’s interim CEO and president. “(ContentServer 7) is designed to improve the efficiencies . . . by
reducing errors, lowering production costs, and improving time-to-market.”
When the integrated application is available in early 2002, users will be able to access digital assets from desktop applications such as Quark XPress and Adobe
Photoshop. Searches will be performed through natural language and database queries.
“Given our goals to extend AltaVista’s search capability for enterprise and intranet use, Engage’s experience in workflow automation and digital asset management,
combined with its ability to deliver content across many different marketing channels, makes them an ideal partner,” said Phil Rugani, an AltaVista vice
president.
The cooperation comes at a critical time for Engage. The Andover, Mass., has seen its CEO resign and has dumped its ad network in favor of selling technology to
publishers.
Shares of ENGA jumped 0.04, or 15 percent, to 0.31. The issue has ranged from 0.16 to 3.5 in the last 52 weeks. AltaVista is based in Palo Alto, Calif., and has delayed public offerings because of market conditions.
