I actually worked for a startup that they acquired in January of 2000. As a search startup we had developed a relatively basic text-based advertising system that let folks bid on search terms and get their ads displayed on the search results pages. It was almost 100% automated and we referred to it internally as something that generated “free money” for us.
The executives at Jeeves sold that cash cow off when they acquired us. They said “we’re not in the advertising business”. In October of that same year the company we sold it to relaunched it as Google AdWords.
No. Their leaders at the time weren’t that smart.
I actually worked for a startup that they acquired in January of 2000. As a search startup we had developed a relatively basic text-based advertising system that let folks bid on search terms and get their ads displayed on the search results pages. It was almost 100% automated and we referred to it internally as something that generated “free money” for us.
The executives at Jeeves sold that cash cow off when they acquired us. They said “we’re not in the advertising business”. In October of that same year the company we sold it to relaunched it as Google AdWords.