Backchannelmedia

Jack Myers Media Business Report, November 2, 2006

SpotRunner, ChaCha.com Profiles

By Jack Myers

Is there room in online search for more companies? ChaCha.com believes there is and co-founder Brad Bostic suggests the human component will differentiate ChaCha from Google, Yahoo!Search, Ask.com and leading search engines. ChaCha.com will advance from Alpha development to a Beta test this month and the site has already signed 20,000 professional human "guides" with 1,500 being added daily, says Bostic.

In an exclusive interview with Jack Myers Media Business Report, Bostic pointed out half of all searches do not produce the desired results, and a successful search for detailed information takes an average eleven minutes. "Lots of people try to find things and never find them, based on the way spiders crawl and the way search engines deliver optimized and paid results first."

ChaCha, he explains, "is not trying to compete with Google, but," he adds, "there are hundreds of search engines that are better than Google that people don't know about. Imagine a search that instantly connects you to a live guide who has knowledge of the topic you are searching and who knows the best search engines, the right keywords and the relevant topics. We are doing more precision social search live in real time, using a powerful search tool that helps our professional guides search in the best places. They then pass back links via instant messaging to be sure what they are delivering is consistent with the request." ChaCha is indexing the results of intelligent human search to automate future searches for similar information.

Bostic is confident in the growth potential of ChaCha. "Algorithms still don't have brains and the processing power of the human brain," he comments. "We are not trying to develop a better algorithm than Google, but if you combine the ability to effectively search with knowledge of a given topic it's pretty amazing." Plus, he points out, ChaCha can deliver rich media search results "like no one else can do," and he is eager to sign advertisers on as development partners.

Bostic and co-founder Scott Jones (inventor of Grace Notes) are seeking a second round of angel funding and expect to generate an institutional round of venture capital in the next six months. The name ChaCha derives from the translation of "cha" in Chinese, which is "search," and, Bostic adds, "the human interaction connotation of dance is appropriate."

For more information, visit the ChaCha.com site and contact Bostic at Brad.Bostic@ChaCha.com.

SpotRunner Receives Funding From CBS, WPP, IPG

Equity investments announced this week in SpotRunner from CBS, Interpublic Group and WPP reflect strong interest in the development of more efficient processes for buying and planning online video, video on demand (VOD) and IPTV. Currently, SpotRunner offers a national footprint to small companies looking to advertise on local cable and broadcast stations. Also this week, Boston-based Backchannel Media launched DRTV Research at www.backchannelmedia.com, a free search and planning portal that offers media buyers and planners one central resource to access the latest demographic information, paid programming availabilities, and TV listings for all U.S. commercial television stations, cable networks, regional sports networks, and syndicated programs. Backchannel is building online capabilities to enable media planners to optimize their purchases of television advertising time for the greatest return on investment.

Using SpotRunner, small local advertisers can choose from thousands of ads and customize and upload their text copy and logo, and SpotRunner will turn around a TV and online ad within 24 hours. They will also execute a media buy based on objectives provided by the advertiser. Advertisers are provided with the proposed media buy, which the customer can fully control, selecting, deleting and changing the buy parameters. The media buy is paid by credit card and SpotRunner will place the buy. Original angel funding was provided by Bob Pittman, with venture capital from Allen & Company, Tudor Investment Corporation, Capital Research and Management, Battery Ventures, Comerica Bank, Index Ventures, media executive Lachlan Murdoch and financier Vivi Nevo. SpotRunner is working with DeBeers to develop a custom application that will be available to thousands of independent jewelry stores nationwide and similar applications are being developed for real estate, insurance and financial services, lawn and garden, franchise operations and other retail categories.