Double Your Interview Pleasure: TextLinkAds, Lycos
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Written By Reprise Media | February 16, 2006 | Share This
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We came across a couple of intriguing bull sessions on the internets today: Loren Baker talks with Patrick Gavin of TextLinkAds (an ad placement firm specializing in high quality content providers), and Jim Hedger chats with COO Brian Kalinowski of Lycos - you read that right; apparently, they’ve still got some bark left.
In the ‘Starting Small’ Department When Search Engine Journal’s Loren Baker sat down with Patrick Gavin, the TextLinkAds co-founder was all business: “When webmasters think about monetizing their content and traffic we want to be a top alternative or supplement to YPN or Adsense.” Gavin, who’s also a blogger and runs an SEO service firm, is used to aiming high. He exploited SEO strategies to transform his family’s local brick reclamation business into a nationwide leader in the field before making ‘net technologies his calling.
Now Gavin is bringing the TextLinksAds serving system to the public. The 8 employee outfit will carefully vet potential customers by such criteria as web traffic and genre (sorry, porn sites) before appraising each website individually for “overall quality and appearance.” Sites that pass the smell test stand to benefit from TextLinkAds, since they help organically drive up a site’s search engine relevancy. Gavin explains:
“Our ads are unique from most internet ads because…they are static html links with no redirect or tracking on them. This means our ads can send targeted traffic and help your link popularity which is a top factor in search engine rankings. Our ads are bought and sold for a flat price for a 30 day period independent of the number of clicks or impressions they receive during that period.”
Check out the complete conversation here.
Reports of their demise were at least slightly exagerrated Elsewhere, StepForth’s Jim Hedger discussed the possible rejuvenation of seminal search brand Lycos with COO Brian Kalinowski. While they find the implication that they’ve given up on search unsavory, Kalinowski admits that Lycos will be targeting niche markets of “independent creators” rather than the kind of broad-based search commanded by the likes of Google. There’s talk of a “dramatic relaunch” soon, which could include a Lycos record label (huh?) and other “services and platforms” for distributing independent original content, from games to films, through “social-based search applications.” When asked how the new-look Lycos should be regarded, Kalinowski said:
“As the sleeping giant. We will never come back and be the $100 billion company. We’re aiming at capturing a lot of smaller niche markets, satisfying needs that Yahoo and Google can’t because that requires focus outside of their capabilities.”
It sounds to us like the old dog is trying to learn an awful lot of new tricks. Good luck, fellas.
Topics: Interviews |