The Seattle-Search.com Blog

Travel search site Farecast was rumored to be a takeover target recently and  CEO Hugh Crean has confirmed that the site has indeed been acquired by Microsoft. TechCrunch, citing John Cook at the Seattle PI, says the deal was worth something in the $100-$115 million range.Microsoft has a long history in travel, having started Expedia in the mid-1990s (it was sold to IAC’s predecessor USANetworks in 1999). Farecast’s claim to differentiation was that it could predict whether air fares or hotel prices were going up or down to help travelers know when to buy. The site has been around for about two years.

The capabilities are already present on MSN travel and we’ll likely see it affect travel-related search results on Live Search.

At last week’s Search Engine Strategies conference in New York City, Seattle-based Widemile Inc. announced the launch of a new Optimization platform that can reduce the time of testing landing page success to a fraction of other systems.”

Multivariate optimization makes each advertising dollar more accountable and work harder, making it highly appropriate for the current economic environment. The Widemaile system makes it possible to test multiplke factors and testing levels in a fraction of the time, and with a percentage of the transactional data of traditional systems. The methodology is referred to as Predictive Analytics.

Randy Barney, Director of Site Optimization for Avenue A | Razorfish had this to say: “We’re excited about Widemile’s approach and toolset, which is structured to scale with our business and client needs.” [24x7]

Seattle social networking startup Blue Dot is scrapping its name and repositioning the service — now dubbed Faves.com.Users of the new site can create a personalized Web page populated with their favorite news topics. For example, a Seattle Mariners’ fan who also enjoys surfing and cooking could sign up to receive information about those specific topics from other users who have bookmarked related content. That puts Faves.com in direct competition with sites such as Topix.net, Digg and Stumble Upon. The concept also is similar to what Seattle’s SportsUltra is trying with its customized sports news service.

<http://faves.com/home>

Making the first acquisition in its 11-year history, MSNBC.com, a joint venture between Microsoft and the NBC Universal division of GE, is diving into citizen journalism and social media by acquiring Newsvine.com, a six-employee startup that has helped pave the way in what is known as “participatory journalism.”

Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson will report to Charlie Tillinghast, president of MSNBC Interactive News and publisher of msnbc.com, but otherwise, Newsvine will continue to operate independently.

Tillinghast said msnbc.com was racing to foster a community among its readers and to exploit the power of unmoderated user commentary and ranking of the news. Ideally, he said in an interview, the site would design and build its own tools, but Newsvine, headquartered in downtown Seattle a few minutes from msnbc.com’s newsroom, “is just a great fit.”

Rand Fishkin believes in transparency.  He runs his company, SEOmoz, like he does his blog, publicly.

A few months ago he hired SEM consultant Andy Beal to advise on the growth of the business. Rand reported Beal’s findings and recommendations to his audience of SEO enthusiasts and commentators. He also asked this blogging community whether he should accept outside investment in his agency.

Reactions were mixed, but Rand appears to have squarely connected with two VC firms — Ignition Partners and Curious Office.  Today he announced an investment of $1.25 million in his firm.  Rand also disclosed that he has invited Zillow’s Vanessa Fox to join his board of directors.

SEOmoz is now on a mission to add products and services that add value  to search marketing, right here in the Emerald City. As Rand puts it, “We literally have a hundred different ideas for tools, search analytics, tracking, guides, [and] resources.”  Clearly, Rand also wants to get into the training end of the business as well.  Will all of that amount to the earnings multiples that will impress his new VC partners in terms of ROI? Only time will tell.

With this new beginning , Rand also sees a potential ending.  He writes, “…When we decided to accept this money, we took a step in a direction that will probably end with the sale of SEOmoz (as we’re most likely not a target to go public). I think that this is one of the other big fears that members and commenters had - and I can completely empathize. However, I will say this - I’m in this for the long haul, and even though SEOmoz may, in 4-7 years, be part of another company, I’m going to do my damndest to make sure that all the great things about us get preserved.”

Attending the Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose this week along with the annual Google Dance event, it’s easy to see the ascendancy of Search across so many categories.

The Google Dance, Google’s open house and social mixer held on the Google campus in Mountain View features Google product demonstrations, an “Ask the Engineers” breakout session,  and a carnival like atmosphere under the California moonlight that is festooned with multicolored lights and Google T-shirts, plus everything from karaoke contests, billards and beach volleball to stations where you can build your own root beer float.

The date of this year’s Google Dance coincided with Google looking skyward in a stellar direction.  The company announced the debut of Google Sky to allow searchers to peer into the cosmos and study astronomical photos, Google Sky being a supernatural extension of Google Earth.

Meanwhile, on the shores of Lake Washington, Google is breaking ground on a new Googleplex which will surely be the site of a future northwest edition of The Google Dance.  The LakeView Plaza campus is a  three-building, 195,000-square-foot development currently under construction in Kirkland.  You’ll soon be able to spot it on Google Maps, and Google Earth of course, even from millions of miles away in space!

Seattle-headquartered EarthClassMail, the postal mail digitizer that converts your paper mail into scanned images delivered to your email account (making it the ultimate PO box replacement for anyone who wants to exchange trips to the letterbox, eliminate junk mail from their lives) has officially changed its Web domain from RemoteControlMail.com to EarthClassMail.com.

The new online home for Earth Class Mail is http://www.earthclassmail.com

Trusted by thousands of subscribers in 80+ countries, Earth Class Mail services work for personal mail use, business mail use as well as enterprise mail receiving and forwarding.

Seattle-based BillMonk has been bought by mobile payment company Obopay and will immediately let its users settle their social debts using Obopay mobile payment technology.

BillMonk, founded a year ago by former Amazonian’s Gauraov Oberoi and Chuck Groom, lets people track money they share or owe to friends and others, like shared living costs or restaurant tabs.  San Francisco-based Obopay sells technology that lets people pay for things using a mobile phone.

According to John Cook’s Venture Blog, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the financial payoff was not the incentive.

“Primarily for us it was the ability to continue to grow BillMonk,” said Groom. “It is a match made in heaven. Both services are so compatible. Put them together and both services become much better.”