Centraal Corp. said that LookSmart will incorporate its RealNames System for navigating Web pages
into the LookSmart Web directory by the end of October.
Centraal said the service will be available through LookSmart’s Web site as
well as 95 ISPs and other sites that LookSmart currently distributes its
service. Financial arrangements were not disclosed.
In addition, LookSmart will serve as a reseller of RealNames subscriptions
directly to other Web sites. The reach of RealNames, currently more than 3
million unique users per month, will expand considerably as a direct result of
reaching LookSmart’s 4.5 million unique users per month, Centraal said.
“This agreement provides a significant boost to RealNames’ reach across the
Internet,” said Ted West, executive vice president of sales and marketing for
Centraal. “The agreement also leverages LookSmart’s Webmaster relationships to
ensure that they have the opportunity to subscribe to RealNames’ precise
navigation services.”
“LookSmart’s core business is providing users with the best quality search and
navigation service on the Web,” said Evan Thornley, CEO and co-founder of San
Francisco-based LookSmart. “RealNames provides an outstanding addition to that
service.”
“We see this partnership with LookSmart as a milestone for Centraal because it
represents another step in our efforts to make RealNames available to all
Internet users, all of the time,” said Keith Teare, founder and CEO of
Centraal.
Centraal unveiled the RealName System, a global naming system for navigating
the Internet instead of using URLs, in March, and began its first distribution
partnership in May.
LookSmart hosts an editorially reviewed database of Web content with 500,000
site listings in 20,000 categories.