Ansearch signs pay-per-click ad deal

Starting March 31, Ansearch will join Overture's Australian distribution network which currently includes Yahoo! Australia & New Zealand, ninemsn, Fairfax Digital, News Interactive, Mooter, OptusNet and Ozemail.

Ansearch, Australia's newest search engine, was launched in October 2004 and is still in its development phase.

Mel Bohse, managing director of Overture Australia said, they expect the addition of Ansearch to "further extend" their network to reach into the 90 percent plus range of all Australian Internet users "resulting in even more highly qualified sales leads for our many thousands of advertisers".

For its formal launch on March 31, Ansearch will introduce new features including returning search results based firstly on the relevancy of Web sites to a keyword search and then ranking relevant Web sites according to their popularity with Australian users.

Ansearch will also display search results as single Web sites, not single web pages, reducing the number of results (and clutter) but increasing the amount of information available to the user on each Web site.

"There is a strong cultural fit between our two teams and becoming part of Overture's network is a significant step for Ansearch in Australia and for our overseas expansion plans. When we announced the new search engine in October 2004, we forecast earning our first revenues in April 2005 and we are right on track for this and other milestones over the coming months," said Ansearch chief executive officer, Dean Jones.

The agreement with Overture will see PPC advertising appearing on the Ansearch search engine starting March 31. Ansearch's director of sales, Josh Edis, said the PPC advertising will be one of a number of core revenue streams for Ansearch in 2005.

"Working with Overture will introduce the Ansearch brand to a potential global audience of over 100,000 advertisers. Overture's paid search advertising solution is an ideal fit for Ansearch, and will compliment our additional advertising solutions to be launched from April 2005.

"This agreement gives Ansearch cost efficiencies, our advertisers a good return on advertising spend, and will deliver revenue straight to Ansearch's bottom line. Our alliance with Overture will help to grow the search market in Australia and has all the key ingredients for a successful commercial partnership," said Edis.