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

Screenshot of TheFind.com
Screenshot of TheFind.com

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

  1. ^ Mitra, Sramana (2007-04-03). TheFind: LifeStyle Shopping (Part 1).. Sramana Mitra on Strategy.
  2. ^ Marshall, Matt (2006-10-26). Thefind.com, another shopping search engine, aims for comprehensiveness. VentureBeat.com.
  3. ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (2007-07-13). TheFind Locates $15 Million in V.C. Funding. The New York Times.
  4. ^ Marshall, Matt (2006-10-26). Thefind.com, another shopping search engine, aims for comprehensiveness. VentureBeat.com.
  5. ^ About Us. TheFind.com.
  6. ^ TheFind.com Launches Next-Generation Shopping Search Engine That Helps Consumers Find Any Product Sold Online (2006-10-31).
  7. ^ Smith, Brian (2006-12-10). TheFind Launches Color (For a Cause) Search. ComparisonEngines.com.
  8. ^ TheFind.com Launches 'Find Similar Items' Tool That Allows Shoppers To Organize Millions of Products Into Custom Catalogs (2007-02-28).
  9. ^ TheFind.com Announces New Shopping Search Engine Dedicated Exclusively to PayPal. PR News Today (2007-06-12).
  10. ^ Smith, Brian (2007-03-24). TheFind Gets More In Touch With Its Feminine Side. ComparisonEngines.com.
  11. ^ TheFind.com is the Fastest-Growing Next-Generation Shopping Search Engine (2007-03-28).
  12. ^ Glimpse Is Now Part Of TheFind.com Shopping Family. eCommerceOptimization (2007-08-29).
  13. ^ TheFind.com's Color Search Raises Funds for Global Doctors. DirectMag.com (2007-01-22).
  14. ^ Color for a Cause – Helping Susan G Komen for the Cure. TheFindBlog (2007-04-12).
  15. ^ Knight, Charles (2007-01-29). The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines. Read/Write Web.
  16. ^ Knight, Charles (2007-02-27). The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, February 2007. Read/Write Web.
  17. ^ Knight, Charles (2007-03-28). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, March 2007. Read/Write Web.
  18. ^ Knight, Charles (2007-05-01). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, April 2007. Read/Write Web.
  19. ^ Knight, Charles (2007-06-06). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, June 2007. Read/Write Web.
  20. ^ Knight, Charles (2007-07-02). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, July 2007. Read/Write Web.
  21. ^ Knight, Charles (2007-08-01). Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, August 2007. Read/Write Web.
  22. ^ Red Herring 100 North America Awards Finalists. The Red Herring (2007-04-25).
  23. ^ 11th Annual Webby Awards Unveil Nominees for Best Websites, Videos, and Ads of the Year. WebbyAwards.com (2007-04-10).
  24. ^ Comparison Shopping Features. eCommerceOptimization (2007-11-14).
  25. ^ Local Search Capabiity. eCommerceOptimization (2007-12-12).
  26. ^ Siva Kumar Interview. eCommerceOptimization (2007-11-01).