InfoSpace
Encyclopedia
Infospace provides metasearch
and private-label Internet search
services for consumers and businesses.
InfoSpace's flagship metasearch site is Dogpile
; its other consumer brands are WebCrawler
, Nation, DoGreatGood
and MetaCrawler
.
after he left Microsoft
. He served as CEO until 2000. The company, which started with six employees, built an online yellow pages
service to be funded through advertising
. A set of simple chat room
s (based on HTML and meta refresh
) were also available on the site.
InfoSpace went public on December 15, 1998. The company raised $75 million in the offering.
In July 2000, InfoSpace acquired Go2Net. After the merger, Go2Net CEO Russell Horowitz became president of Infospace.
Also, in 2000, InfoSpace used a controversial accounting method to report $46 million in profits when in fact it had lost $282 million. Company executives skirted SEC trading restrictions to sell large blocks of their personal stock.
Jain resumed the role of CEO in 2001, but was forced out by InfoSpace's board as chairman and CEO in December 2002.
By June 2002, the company's stock price, which reached $1,305 in March 2000, had dropped to $2.67.
In 2003, InfoSpace acquired Moviso from Vivendi Universal Net USA. Moviso provides ringtones, wallpaper
s and video games, usually accessed through a mobile handset
enabling wireless carriers to charge a fee for these downloads.
In early March 2003, InfoSpace sued Jain for allegedly violating noncompete agreements in his role at newly founded Intelius. In an interview after the suit was filed, Jain said the lawsuit was without merit and was a retaliation for Jain's whistle-blowing. In April 2003, he resigned from the InfoSpace board.
In 2004, InfoSpace acquired Switchboard
, which is now owned by Verizon spin-off Idearc Media, and overshadowed by Idearc's SuperPages. It also moved into the mobile games space, acquiring Atlas Mobile, IOMO
and elkware.
In November 2009, InfoSpace started an online auction website called haggle.com. A year later, it shut down the website and sold its assets to BigDeal.com.
In September 2011, InfoSpace secured a $100 million credit facility.
insider trading
rules, and issued a $247 million judgment against him, the largest award of its kind at that time. While on appeal in 2005, Jain settled the case for $105 million, while denying liability. Jain's attempt in further litigation against his former lawyers for the loss was dismissed.
Metasearch engine
A metasearch engine is a search tool that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source. Metasearch engines enable users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines...
and private-label Internet search
Web search engine
A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers. The search results are generally presented in a list of results often referred to as SERPS, or "search engine results pages". The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other...
services for consumers and businesses.
InfoSpace's flagship metasearch site is Dogpile
Dogpile
Dogpile is a metasearch engine that fetches results from Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Ask.com, About.com and several other popular search engines, including those from audio and video content providers. It is a registered trademark of InfoSpace, Inc.- History :...
; its other consumer brands are WebCrawler
WebCrawler
WebCrawler is a metasearch engine that blends the top search results from Google, Yahoo!, Bing Search , Ask.com, About.com, MIVA, LookSmart and other popular search engines. WebCrawler also provides users the option to search for images, audio, video, news, yellow pages and white pages...
, Nation, DoGreatGood
DoGreatGood
Do Great Good was a search engine that allowed users to help support charitable causes by conducting online searches.Do Great Good was founded in May 2009 by InfoSpace, a well-known search company which also owns Dogpile, WebCrawler, MetaCrawler and Nation...
and MetaCrawler
MetaCrawler
MetaCrawler is a metasearch engine that blends the top web search results from Google, Yahoo!, Bing , Ask.com, About.com, MIVA, LookSmart and other popular search engines. MetaCrawler also provides users the option to search for images, video, news, yellow pages and white pages...
.
History
InfoSpace was founded in March 1996 by Naveen JainNaveen Jain
Naveen K. Jain is a business executive and entrepreneur. He is the founder of InfoSpace, Intelius, and Moon Express. In 2000, Forbes ranked Jain 121 on their list of 400 Richest Americans with a net worth of 2.2 billion dollars....
after he left Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. He served as CEO until 2000. The company, which started with six employees, built an online yellow pages
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, organized by category, rather than alphabetically by business name and in which advertising is sold. As the name suggests, such directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings...
service to be funded through advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
. A set of simple chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
s (based on HTML and meta refresh
Meta refresh
Meta refresh is a legacy method of instructing a web browser to automatically refresh the current web page or frame after a given time interval, using an HTML meta element with the http-equiv parameter set to "refresh" and a content parameter giving the time interval in seconds...
) were also available on the site.
InfoSpace went public on December 15, 1998. The company raised $75 million in the offering.
In July 2000, InfoSpace acquired Go2Net. After the merger, Go2Net CEO Russell Horowitz became president of Infospace.
Also, in 2000, InfoSpace used a controversial accounting method to report $46 million in profits when in fact it had lost $282 million. Company executives skirted SEC trading restrictions to sell large blocks of their personal stock.
Jain resumed the role of CEO in 2001, but was forced out by InfoSpace's board as chairman and CEO in December 2002.
By June 2002, the company's stock price, which reached $1,305 in March 2000, had dropped to $2.67.
In 2003, InfoSpace acquired Moviso from Vivendi Universal Net USA. Moviso provides ringtones, wallpaper
Mobile wallpaper
A mobile wallpaper is a computer wallpaper sized to fit a mobile device such as a mobile phone, personal digital assistant or digital audio player. Screens range in size from 128x128 to 640x360 and the height is often greater than or equal to the width...
s and video games, usually accessed through a mobile handset
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
enabling wireless carriers to charge a fee for these downloads.
In early March 2003, InfoSpace sued Jain for allegedly violating noncompete agreements in his role at newly founded Intelius. In an interview after the suit was filed, Jain said the lawsuit was without merit and was a retaliation for Jain's whistle-blowing. In April 2003, he resigned from the InfoSpace board.
In 2004, InfoSpace acquired Switchboard
Eugene Lee (entrepreneur)
Eugene Lee is CEO of Socialtext Incorporated, an enterprise social software company based in Palo Alto, California.-Early life:Lee received an A.B. in Physics and an Sc. B. in Engineering and Applied Sciences from Harvard University and an M.S...
, which is now owned by Verizon spin-off Idearc Media, and overshadowed by Idearc's SuperPages. It also moved into the mobile games space, acquiring Atlas Mobile, IOMO
IOMO
IOMO was a pioneering European mobile game developer and publisher based in Hampshire, England. IOMO was founded by John Chasey and Glenn Broadway in 2000. Initially a developer, the company was very successful in the early stages of the mobile game industry and worked with the majority of mobile...
and elkware.
In November 2009, InfoSpace started an online auction website called haggle.com. A year later, it shut down the website and sold its assets to BigDeal.com.
In September 2011, InfoSpace secured a $100 million credit facility.
Shareholder lawsuit
In a shareholder lawsuit filed in 2003, a lower court federal judge ruled that former InfoSpace CEO, Naveen Jain, had purchased shares of Infospace in violation of six month short swingShort swing
A short swing rule restricts officers and insiders of a company from making short-term profits at the expense of the firm. It part of United States federal securities law, and is a prophylactic measure intended to guard against so-called insider trading...
insider trading
Insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...
rules, and issued a $247 million judgment against him, the largest award of its kind at that time. While on appeal in 2005, Jain settled the case for $105 million, while denying liability. Jain's attempt in further litigation against his former lawyers for the loss was dismissed.