Here's another hit on the availability of directories as link building tools: Dex One has announced plans to shut down Business.com, a national directory of business listings, and fold it into its Dex One business, which includes the DexKnows.com online yellow pages site. Business.com was ostensibly a B-to-B directory, but had often been referenced as a primary/foundational source of links for sites in the B-to-C space, too. It's not the only directory site to go away recently: Yahoo just closed its UK and Ireland directories, and shut down four other European directories late last year. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Link Building: General | Search Engines: B2B Engines

Most search marketers focus on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. But B2B search marketers also have a growing number of vertical search options. Clicks and leads from these vertical search sites may not yield the same traffic as general search engines, but the percentage of qualified traffic and conversions can increase dramatically with leads from these specialized and vertical business-oriented engines. Here's a roundup of the most important search sites and resources B2B search marketers should be targeting. While business searchers may start their quest on a general search engine like Go [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search | Search Engines: B2B Engines

As any company trying to set up operations in China knows, getting things done is a little more difficult than in the western world. In the United States, finding a supplier is relatively easy. You can look for partners at trade shows, industry publications, or put an ad in business directories, among other places. There are the general search engine like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft's Live Search. There are B2B search engines such as business.com, Zibb, and Thomasnet, and specialized vertical sites like Construction.com. But in China, it’s typically been much harder to easily source t [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Search | Search Engines: B2B Engines

RH Donnelley, which acquired SEM firm LocalLaunch in 2006 and owns the local search/online yellow pages site DexKnows, has announced the acquisition of Business.com and its related properties for $350 million. According to PaidContent, there was an auction that included IAC, Dow Jones, News Corp. and the New York Times Company. According to comScore, Business.com's network reach and unique visitors put it in the top 50 of US ad networks. The acquisition will enable the yellow pages publisher diversify its online revenue base and gain technology that will help the overall business. Business. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: B2B Engines | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

Business.com Could Hit Jackpot on Auction Block from the Wall Street Journal reports that Business.com is "on the auction block." The popular business-to-business directory is expected to make between $300 to $400 million on the sale. Who would be interested in buying Business.com? The Wall Street Journal believes that Dow Jones and New York Times might be some of the companies to make an offer. [...]

Related Topics: Business Issues: Acquisitions & Investments | Channel: Industry | Search Engines: B2B Engines

ZoomInfo today launched its Business Information Search Engine, a service that offers information on more than 3.5 million companies. Although the company profiles are similar to those offered by Hoovers.com and other subscription-based providers, ZoomInfo business profiles are free. The profiles also differ in how they're compiled. While most business information providers laboriously compile information by hand, ZoomInfo has developed a semantic search engine that crawls the web and semantically tags, aggregates and organizes information automatically for each company it tracks. Typical p [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: B2B Engines

Reed Elsevier is one of the largest, most influential publishers in the world, a powerhouse in the science and medical, legal, education and business markets. But the company also has a major online presence, with more than 1,000 web sites in just its business group. Last year, Reed Business decided to leverage this significant online presence by creating Zibb, a business-to-business search engine that allows users to search across all of Reed Business' web sites. But Zibb goes beyond that—Reed also indexes billions of other business-related URLs from all over the web, including com [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Q&A Land | Search Engines: B2B Engines | Site & Enterprise Search

Noticed on Search Engine Watch, the B2B arm of mega-publisher Reed Elsevier has launched Zibb.com, a "vertical" search engine for business users. I say that in quotes because it's vertical in the way that Business.com is vertical. It's really a general engine for B2B users. Zibb also offers general Web and blog search and is built on the FAST enterprise platform. Former FAST VP Stephen Baker is CEO of Reed Business Search and responsible for Zibb and other search initiatives at Reed. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Search Engines: B2B Engines