Fast & InfoSpace extend working relationship

by: admin Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

Rating: operator muscle grabs user finesse

Fast Search & Transfer and InfoSpace have decided that their joint work for Cingular could be the start of something much bigger and have decided to form a partnership. This will exploit, according to Fast’s Mike Brady, the finesse of InfoSpace’s user interface with the muscle and scalability of Fast’s operator solutions. Great idea, and on the eve of Valentine’s Day, partnering is definitely in the air in the search arena – see below for JumpTap and SurfKitchen’s new found attraction.

Mr Brady said that there were no plans for a merger between Fast and InfoSpace, but even if there were, it would be no proof that two organisations can come together and meld into one. Only time will tell how fruitful the partnership will prove.

However, these partnerships are a good sign – search is progressing and the drivers in the industry are recognising the fact and teaming up in an effort to provide a uniform and unified front to both operators and users. Even better, Mr Brady agrees that the future of mobile search will be inextricably entwined with advertising – and so say all of us.

The plan is, “To deliver a next-generation white label ASP mobile search service that will enable carriers to take more control over their content business models, and provide a richer mobile search experience to customers. The two companies, with more than 20 years combined experience in the search industry, have deployed more white label mobile search solutions worldwide than any other provider.”

We’ll see, but the motivation is right.

For more information see
http://investor.infospaceinc.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=229687&PageSection=PressRoom