Feb 22, 2017

July 19, 2005 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time PASADENA, Calif.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--July 19, 2005--Perfect Market Technologies, Inc., which operates Snap.com, a next-generation search engine developed to deliver users superior search results with an advertiser-centric business model, announced today it received $10 million in new venture funding. The round was led by Mayfield, based in Menlo Park, CA, with additional participation from founding investor Idealab of Pasadena, CA. The new funds will be used to further the company's product development initiatives and for company operations. Following in the footsteps of CitySearch, GoTo.com (later Overture Services, Inc.), and X1 Technologies, Snap.com is a Bill Gross-founded service established to innovate in the search field. "We were excited by the opportunity to invest in Snap.com as our entry into the exploding search market," said Allen Morgan, Managing Director of Mayfield. "We believe that there will be more than one winner and Snap.com has all the right ingredients: the pioneering heritage of Idealab's sponsored-search business model, a great team and a unique user-centric workflow approach." "This round of funding validates Snap.com's technology direction and its enormous potential," said Tom McGovern, CEO of Snap.com. "Mayfield's extensive consumer Internet experience, expertise in our industry and its established network of technology experts will no doubt help further the success of Snap.com. Mayfield will provide invaluable guidance as we continue to pioneer significant improvements to the traditional approach of typing words into a search box and waiting for a text list from the search engine." "Internet search advertising is now a $6 billion industry but remains underdeveloped when considering its potential in the $280 billion U.S. advertising market," said Bill Gross, CEO of Idealab. "While the industry has already experienced a fantastic run, innovations will further catalyze growth as search engine marketing delivers advertisers measurable and superior return on advertising dollars. Meanwhile, users' expectations for relevant search results are becoming harder to meet with traditional search engines. Snap.com is constantly innovating search technology to exceed users' expectations and deliver results for the complex queries they have today. Our mission is to deliver the fastest, most relevant search results for users, and irrefutable ROI to advertisers." Snap.com is revolutionizing Internet search with innovations in relevance and user control of the search experience. While traditional search engines rely primarily on machine calculations to rank results (such as link-strength), Snap.com adds an important human element to determining rank by utilizing behavioral information to show users search results that have proven useful to previous searchers performing the same query. Once results are displayed, Snap.com gives users added control of sorting and filtering of the listings, based on users' declared intent rather than assumptions made by the algorithm. The synergy of improved relevance and user control over listings yields faster time to satisfaction than any search engine today. In a further advance over existing search engines, Snap.com offers advertisers the ability to pay for their desired business results, including sales, downloads, leads, subscriptions, or other actions important to the advertiser. With traditional Pay-Per-Click, advertisers pay the search engine whether or not a click leads to revenue. Snap's Cost-Per-Action ("CPA") system offers advertisers the ability to pay when a customer completes an action tied to revenue, eliminating this risk. Snap.com's CPA model eliminates the risk of click-fraud for the advertiser, a widely acknowledged problem in the industry. Snap.com is the first paid search vehicle where the interests of the search engine and the advertisers are truly aligned to maximize the return on advertising dollars. About Snap.com Snap.com is a service of Perfect Market Technologies, Inc., and is dedicated to getting users to results they really want in half the time. Snap.com delivers superior relevance and rich interactive listings to broadband users, and offers risk-free, flexible Cost-Per-Action advertising with unmatched ROI to advertisers. Perfect Market is a network company of Idealab, a creator and operator of technology businesses. Snap.com builds on Idealab's achievements in the search industry, including its creation of the paid search model through its former network company Overture Services, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2003. Perfect Market Technologies is based in Pasadena, CA. About Mayfield Mayfield provides "Venture Capital with Impact" and shows leadership in early-stage venture investing by teaming with exceptional individuals to create industry-leading companies. With $2.2 billion in capital under management, Mayfield has deep domain expertise in consumer Internet and digital media services, enterprise software, networking and communications technology. Since Mayfield's founding in 1969, the firm has invested in more than 400 companies, completed hundreds of mergers and acquisitions and taken 100 companies public. Mayfield's portfolio of companies includes those that represent the foundation of today's technology economy as well as companies striving to set the technology paradigms of the future. For more information: www.mayfield.com . About Idealab Idealab's mission is to create and operate pioneering technology companies. Founded in 1996 by entrepreneur Bill Gross, Idealab provides a broad range of operational support to its companies, allowing the operating company management teams to focus on getting to market quickly and cost-effectively, and to take advantage of the serial start-up experience of the Idealab team. Bill Gross and Idealab have founded companies such as Overture Services, Inc., CitySearch, Picasa, CarsDirect and X1 Technologies. Current operating companies are providing innovative technology solutions in industries such as software, search, wireless and alternative energy fields. Additional information can be found at www.idealab.com . Perfect Market Technologies, Inc. and Snap.com are trademarks of Perfect Market Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) 2005 All rights reserved. Contacts