Switchboard Inc., a
subsidiary of Banyan Systems and provider of online white and yellow pages
directory services, said it licensed its SideClick Web site searching
technology and management tools to the Toronto Star’s Web site.
SideClick links will be embedded throughout major content areas of TheStar.com
such as Automotive, Travel and Real Estate to enable users to search the Web
for related topics and sites.
By integrating SideClick, the Toronto Star will be able to offer searching
services directly on its site–services which TheStar.com users currently
look to other sites to provide.
“By leveraging SideClick, we will be able to get them to `stick’ to
TheStar.com site for longer periods of time, increasing user loyalty, traffic
and ultimately advertising revenues,” said Rocco Rossi, vice president of
strategic planning and new media for the Toronto Star. Parent company Torstar
Corp. is also expected to leverage SideClick to create a national search
service for Canada to compete with U.S.-based Internet portal sites.
The new release of the SideClick database, which went live on the Switchboard
site last week, contains more than 3 million Web sites. Financial terms of the
Star deal were not disclosed.
