< NOT even the behemoth Google monetises its news page. >You...

< NOT even the behemoth Google monetises its news page. >

You continue, to 'miss the boat', struggy .... Not all 'content' is news ... It is those 'articles of interest', from 'deep' down in the archives OF publishers, that are 'dug up' by searchers all over the world, & then bookmarked (Furled, Spurled, "savedthis-ed" and possibly, EVEN Myway-ed) for those doing the 'counts', (the 'toll collectors') to them make the appropriate ADS placement, according to 'relevancy' of content, of these 'dragged up' articles!! - (The 'deep' web !!)

< LOOK.....does NOT even have an up to date data base.

It barely crawls 1 billion URL's. >

They don't need too !! - As described above, those visitors to the MANY networked sites, (under agreements that have already been made with LOOK, as part of the 'network') do the 'crawling' for the 'network' & guess what, THEY then determine the relevancy, or, the popularity of an article (no matter how 'old' it may be), simply by the number of 'book marks' or, 'hits', that a particular article recieves !! - Now, THAT'S efficiencies !!!

< Google is 8 times that size and crawls at least every 14 days. >

Yes ... And they'll soon get sick of doing that !! - Sophisticated 'searchers' will not want to have to (as is current with Google searchers) have to 'wade through' MILLIONS of results, looking for the article, that they require .... The 'deep web' allows people who (also) share a 'same' interest as a (any) searcher (throughout the world), will have 'dug it up', for them, already !!

< This is an "inherent" flaw in the LOOK model. >

smuggs .... ONE day you will come to realise that Looksmart is NOT (these days) 'pitching' for the 'natural search' markets. (As, GOOG, YHOO or, MSN). They do NOT see themselves as a Portal any more, so as to NOT be in competition, with their publishers!! - Can't you see ??? "There are more ways than ONE to slice a pie", someone said. (LOL !!)

< One can easily see......the "fundamental flaw" >

Whilst LOOK does retain a healty Listings base, that will continue to grow, (& visitors to Looksmart.com will create direct 'hit' revenues, from all LOOK sites, for that matter) it is the contextual (ADS subtle placed allongside relevant content, in Articles) and ADWORDS, supplied by Google, reaching out to a potential MAMMOTH audience through Networking, that will grow Looksmart's revenues, VERY very quickly, IMHO.

Incidentally, I did discuss this VERY area of potential, some two, or, more years ago on another site ... (where you had your 'blue' with charge), as I likened it to ...... a 'GAME OF FISH', a card game ...
"anyone got a 2 of spades Advertisement?, great, we'll put it here, against some relevant content, called an article" ....