Ansearch – A New & Innovative Australian Search Engine
or Something More Sinister?
Judge for yourself!
Part One of a Detailed Seven Part Series.
Prepared by: Melissa Martin, Diane Scott & Peter McNamara with contributions from many industry sources.
Note: Despite emails requesting comments on this article to Ansearch CEO Dean Jones, Ansearch Media relations employee Louisa Williams & Optum CEO Peter Jermyn, neither company has chosen to respond to address the concerns raised.
Ansearch: A Detailed Seven Part Series
- Ansearch Case Files: Background Information & Introduction
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Under Fire
- Ansearch Case Files: Questionable Domain Name Registration Tactics
- Ansearch Case Files: Discovery Spreads
- Ansearch Case Files: The Domain Dispute Resolution Process
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch & Associated Domain Names
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Contact Information
Ansearch - Background Information and Introduction
Ansearch, a newcomer to the Australian search scene, launched their branded beta search engine last November 30th with hopeful plans of a commercial launch & monetarisation this March.With the test engine (Mysearch.com.au) fielding initial results, Ansearch released the commercial interface in December 2004. Ansearch promised to offer users a different perspective on finding results, seeking to deliver sites based on reputation, relevance and credibility. Overall popularity was one of the key criteria used for the ranking algorithm and many businesses began to see traffic from the new engine.
In fact, Ansearch / Mysearch began to attract enough attention that an offer to purchase the service by Optum Limited (ASX: OPM) was announced September 28th 2004. In addition to the Ansearch Heads of Agreement, Optum placed 77,500,000 shares raising $387,500 to progress with current projects and notably the Ansearch transaction. The agreement to acquire the company was however, conditional upon several performance milestones with increasing bonuses for meeting these milestones. Optum initially offered 250 million shares and 250 million options (1 cent on or before 30 June 2006) upon satisfaction of precedent conditions. There were three subsequent performance milestones outlined in the acquisition agreement, requiring Ansearch to reach an end target of 600 thousand unique visitors with corresponding increases in share options.
In announcements made by Optum to the ASX referring to the progress of the Ansearch search engine, much mention is made of "Unique Visitor" targets in each document. eg the February 10 announcement states:
"The search engine is well placed to meet its target for unique visitors" and "Ansearch was the 12th most popular search engine in Australia during the month of February, a significant jump from its No. 29 position in January, according to online measurement company, Hitwise."
The question is, are these genuine unique visitor numbers that have been achieved or numbers that have been achieved significantly by artificial means - in effect, hijacking people who were in fact, looking for different sites (i.e. had no intention whatsoever of visiting the Ansearch website).
Example: if somebody accidentally types in wwwasx.com.au they land on Ansearch pages and not The ASX website they were most likely expecting. One wonders if shareholders are aware of the methodologies used in driving traffic?
Next: Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Under Fire >>
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Relevant Links:
Ansearch Commercial Launch
Ansearch ASX Press release
Offer to Purchase by Optum Ltd.
Strange names registered by Ansearch associated entities (chiefly Goodbrook Holdings Ltd.)
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