Loot.com signs paid-for search agreement with Overture

by Staff,, Brand Republic 30-Jun-03, 15:00

LONDON - Commercial search firm Overture Services has signed a deal to provide paid placement search results for the classified ads website Loot.com.

Under terms of the agreement, when a Loot.com user searches classified advertising, Overture will serve up to five of its paid placement search terms related to the original query. These search term suggestions will be featured under the heading, "Web Links", providing internet users greater access to products and services.

As the leading classified ads website, Loot.com allows private individuals to advertise almost anything absolutely free.

With more than 600,000 unique users a month searching the classified ads, the exposure of the Overture web links will be significant.

Loot is owned by the Daily Mail & General Trust, which also owns the Daily Mail, and is part of its Associated New Ventures division. DMGT acquired Loot, including the website and newspaper, two years ago from online directory service Scoot.com for £45m.

Last week, Loot hired the Financial Times' UK advertisement director Claire Payne for a new position at the free ads paper. Payne was a former commercial director of FT.com.

Karin Wannberg, business development executive at Loot.com, said: "Our website is now one of our key channels to market, and more of our customers are interacting with us online. We had been looking for a commercial search partner for a while and determined that giving our users access to Overture's paid search listings was a strong proposition."

Overture supplies sponsored links to leading websites in key sectors, such as information technology, entertainment, finance and news.

These search listings are generated by advertisers who bid for placement on search terms relevant to their business. Overture's editorial team in Dublin reviews these search listings before distributing the results to the company's search partner network, which includes AOL, Freeserve, Lycos, MSN and Tiscali.

"It's clear that Loot.com is striving to give users the most relevant results for their needs and the best search experience possible, by offering complementary search links from Overture," Martin Child, managing director of Overture Northern Europe, said. "With the business and user benefits of paid-placement now firmly established in the UK, Overture is pleased to strengthen its market leadership with a high-profile brand like Loot.com."

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