Following the search engine trend set by Google and perpetuated by competition sweeping the industry, Polish search engine NetSprint has decided on Lithuania as the next area for its operations. The company has launched a search engine for the country with an index of 2.7 million pages or 90% of Lithuanian sites.
With search being the hot item as far as internet technologies go, NetSprint is learning to mimic what’s successful. According to DMEurope.com, NetSprint will be offering keyword-based advertising as part of its search service. A shrewd move for a company that has its choice of the successful Overture and Google to choose from.
NetSprint has rejected this approach. Instead of following Jeeves’ approach, it has decided to follow Google and Overture’s model. NetSprint is partnering with Lithuanian advertising firm Ad.net to serve ads to the Lithuanian searchers. Granted, Lithuania is not as big as a target that the big engines have, and the Lithuanians can always access Google and Yahoo.
But with NetSprint having 90% of the Lithuanian websites already crawled, one would think that they have a slight advantage. If NetSprint succeeds in this endeavor, it is foreseeable that they could expand this service to its Polish audience.
Search expansion is not the only thing on NetSprint’s plate. The search engine is getting ready to release its own toolbar, complete with the functions you would expect out of any search engine. NetSprint is also set to partner with Lithuanian catalog service, Seklys.lt.
Looks like the model is being followed very closely by NetSprint.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
