TheFind.com
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| The Find, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California, USA |
| Key people | Siva Kumar, co-founder and CEO |
| Industry | Shopping Search, Discovery Shopping |
| Website | www.thefind.com |
TheFind.com is a discovery shopping search engine targeting lifestyle products such as apparel, accessories, home and garden, fitness, kids and family, and health and beauty. [1]
Contents |
[edit] History
TheFind Inc, was founded in 2003 as FatLens Inc., initially specializing in event tickets search but later expanding to product search. On October 31, 2006 the site was re-launched as TheFind.com with an emphasis on discovery shopping search for lifestyle products. TheFind.com is a privately-held company in Mountain View, California and received initial funding from Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners & Cambrian Ventures. [2] In 2007, they received an additional $15 million in funding led by Bain Capital Ventures.[3]
[edit] Business Model
TheFind.com positions itself as a discovery shopping search engine[4], in contrast to a Comparison Shopping Engine model more commonly used for computers and electronics. According to the company's website, the search database includes over 150 Million products from over 500,000 online stores.[5] Products are added to the search via crawling as well as some merchant feeds. Unless a result is clearly marked as "sponsored", the search results are ranked using an algorithm based on relevancy and popularity, rather than a pay-for-placement ranking. [6] Clicking on a product from a search results page takes the user to the merchant's site where the product can be purchased directly from the merchant. Since its re-launch, TheFind.com has announced several additional features including color search [7] and find similar items [8]
[edit] Partnerships
TheFind.com has content partnerships with several established web and media properties including PayPal[9] and Glam Publishers Network[10], as well as several blogs such as Celebrity-Babies.com, Popgadget.net, and ConnectingMoms.com.
[edit] Growth
On March 28, 2007, The Find.com announced that it has experienced a 540% increase in unique visits since its launch on October 31, 2006, and a change from 141,625 visits in November 2006 to a run rate of over 900,000 visits in March 2007. They also reported a monthly traffic growth rate of over 35% for Q1 2007. [11]
On August 29, 2007 TheFind.com acquired the women's fashion shopping site Glimpse.com.[12] TheFind.com now powers shopping results at Glimpse.com.
[edit] Charitable Campaigns
TheFind.com periodically runs "Color for a Cause" campaigns to raise money for charities. During each campaign, TheFind.com donates $1 to the selected charity each time users run a search that contains a designated color. In the first campaign launched on January 2007, TheFind.com donated $1 per user per day for searches that contained the color red, raising a total of $10,000 for the humanitarian aid charity Doctors Without Borders. [13] In the campaign launched in April 2007, searches that contained the color pink netted $1 per user per day for the breast cancer research organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure. [14]
[edit] Industry Recognition & Awards
In January 2007, SEO consultant Charles Knight named TheFind.com to his list of The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, [15]. To be included on the list, search engines must demonstrate superiority to Google for that site's search specialty. [16] TheFind.com has remained on this list for each monthly update[17][18][19][20][21] and is the only search engine listed in the Shopping Search category.
In April 2007, Red Herring magazine named TheFind.com as a finalist for the Red Herring 100, [22] a selection of the top private companies based in North America that play a leading role in innovation and technology. TheFind.com was also nominated for a 2007 Webby Award in the Best Retail category.[23]
TheFind has been mentioned on several industry related blogs and social communities, including ComparisonEngines.com and eCommerceOptimization.com. The company continues to generate buzz surrounding their services by announcing new features [24] which include their mini-malls, virtual shopping districts and local search capability[25]. Siva Kumar, company CEO, has also conducted interviews [26] with industry professionals.
[edit] See also
• Online shop
• Price comparison service
• Search engines
• Vertical search
• List of search engines
[edit] External links
TheFind.com
TheFind Blog
the click Blog by Merle Goldberg
TheFindBuzz - Buzz around blogosphere about all things shopping!
[edit] References
- ^ Mitra, Sramana (2007-04-03). TheFind: LifeStyle Shopping (Part 1).. Sramana Mitra on Strategy.
- ^ Marshall, Matt (2006-10-26). Thefind.com, another shopping search engine, aims for comprehensiveness. VentureBeat.com.
- ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (2007-07-13). TheFind Locates $15 Million in V.C. Funding. The New York Times.
- ^ Marshall, Matt (2006-10-26). Thefind.com, another shopping search engine, aims for comprehensiveness. VentureBeat.com.
- ^ About Us. TheFind.com.
- ^ TheFind.com Launches Next-Generation Shopping Search Engine That Helps Consumers Find Any Product Sold Online (2006-10-31).
- ^ Smith, Brian (2006-12-10). TheFind Launches Color (For a Cause) Search. ComparisonEngines.com.
- ^ TheFind.com Launches 'Find Similar Items' Tool That Allows Shoppers To Organize Millions of Products Into Custom Catalogs (2007-02-28).
- ^ TheFind.com Announces New Shopping Search Engine Dedicated Exclusively to PayPal. PR News Today (2007-06-12).
- ^ Smith, Brian (2007-03-24). TheFind Gets More In Touch With Its Feminine Side. ComparisonEngines.com.
- ^ TheFind.com is the Fastest-Growing Next-Generation Shopping Search Engine (2007-03-28).
- ^ Glimpse Is Now Part Of TheFind.com Shopping Family. eCommerceOptimization (2007-08-29).
- ^ TheFind.com's Color Search Raises Funds for Global Doctors. DirectMag.com (2007-01-22).
- ^ Color for a Cause – Helping Susan G Komen for the Cure. TheFindBlog (2007-04-12).
- ^ Knight, Charles (2007-01-29). The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines. Read/Write Web.
- ^ Knight, Charles (2007-02-27). The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, February 2007. Read/Write Web.
- ^ Knight, Charles (2007-03-28). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, March 2007. Read/Write Web.
- ^ Knight, Charles (2007-05-01). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, April 2007. Read/Write Web.
- ^ Knight, Charles (2007-06-06). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, June 2007. Read/Write Web.
- ^ Knight, Charles (2007-07-02). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, July 2007. Read/Write Web.
- ^ Knight, Charles (2007-08-01). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, August 2007. Read/Write Web.
- ^ Red Herring 100 North America Awards Finalists. The Red Herring (2007-04-25).
- ^ 11th Annual Webby Awards Unveil Nominees for Best Websites, Videos, and Ads of the Year. WebbyAwards.com (2007-04-10).
- ^ Comparison Shopping Features. eCommerceOptimization (2007-11-14).
- ^ Local Search Capabiity. eCommerceOptimization (2007-12-12).
- ^ Siva Kumar Interview. eCommerceOptimization (2007-11-01).


