Krugle and the search for business models

Another press release came in today from Krugle. (Long live code.)

The news is that Sourceforge is going to embed Krugle's search engine into its database. This gives developers direct, contextual access to the code of Sourceforge's 145,000 open source projects.

It's a good way for Sourceforge to respond to competition from, say, Launchpad. Enterprises seeking code resources may now prefer Sourceforge, thanks to Krugle.

This is not the first such deal Krugle has signed. They also have embedded and code-crawling agreements with Yahoo, Microsoft and CollabNet. Krugle is deep into the metadata.

Of course, as Tom Cruise might say at this point, Show Me The Money. (How about some love for the folks at Blind Pig Records?)

I asked Laura Merling, Krugle's vice president of marketing and business development, how is Krugle going to monetize these relationships?

Advertising is one revenue stream. But Krugle is also selling enterprise licenses. All these relationships highlight Krugle's value to enterprises, both public and private. Krugle can still sell its software.

While open source, in its traditional sense, does define a business model -- give away the code and sell support -- it doesn't limit what you can or should do. Support, advertising, sales, consulting, all these business models and more work in the open source world.

The trick is always to find which one works best for you, and which one your target market is most likely to accept. When you offer something of value, agreements can always be found.