Intelligent Suggestions Add Up to a Lot of Extra Revenue

Comet Systems founder and chairman Jamie Rosen was seeking more helpful search technology to support his company's 10 million users.

For a company relying on pay-per-click advertising, that boiled down to search suggestions - being able to offer alternative search terms to help users find the results they needed.

The problem was, Comet's existing search suggestion tool was too slow and provided inadequate suggestions. Users were abandoning too many searches. Rosen knew that with more proactive, intelligent assistance, users would click through more frequently, and that would be a win-win situation.

He knew there were three-way opportunity costs in an unsuccessful Comet search - not only could users lose interest in their search, and ultimately in the entire Comet service, it also meant lost potential revenue for Comet Systems and the loss of a potential lead for Comet's pay-per-click advertisers.

Revenue opportunities through successful searches

Comet Systems is the developer of the Comet Cursor, a free cursor utility that tens of millions of people have downloaded. When a user downloads the program, the installation places a new search toolbar along the top of the user's web browser.

Comet Cursor is a channel for the sale of pay-per-click advertising, with key clients like Overture (formerly GoTo) that supply content containing pay-per-click advertising. Comet Systems gains revenue every time a user "clicks through" to a paid search result, thereby becoming a sales lead for the website owner.

Rosen wanted to ensure Comet Systems was gaining as much revenue as possible through this channel.

Enter S.L.I. Systems - solution in hand

So when an acquaintance from NBCi recommended S.L.I. Systems' Learning Search™ technology, Rosen approached the search provider to see if it could create a search suggestion solution that would increase his click-through rate.

S.L.I. Systems was able to modify the 16 million related search suggestions it developed for NBCi to create a solution for Comet Systems. The search provider drew from its experience at NBCi, one of the most visited websites in the world, to handle large volumes of traffic for Comet Cursor - more than 1 million searches per day.

Now, as Comet Cursor users gain additional chances to find information through S.L.I. Systems' related search terms, the chances of clicking on a paid search result are multiplied. This means revenue generation for Comet Systems, thanks to its related search terms provider.

"Instead of coming to a dead end after not finding the information they need in the general list of search results, Comet Cursor users are clicking through to S.L.I. Systems' search suggestions. This effectively re-engages our search. Before, we could have conceivably lost those users altogether, whereas now we're seeing material increases in searches," Rosen says.

An enhanced search experience

Rosen believes Comet Systems has hit paydirt with S.L.I. Systems' intelligent search technology, which provides a multitude of reliable, simple and intuitive related search terms that don't overwhelm or confuse the user.

S.L.I. Systems has increased the odds that Comet Cursor users will find the information they're looking for, thus enhancing their search experience and enticing them to return to the service for more.

Rosen says S.L.I. Systems' contribution has significantly benefited Comet Systems' business, in both generating revenue and enhancing the search experiences of Comet Cursor users. A quarter of all queries are enhanced by the search suggestions.

Rosen was sold not only on S.L.I. Systems' technology, but on the company's approach to business.

"They've enhanced both our revenues and our users' search experiences, and they've been proactive in identifying the things that could improve our service," Rosen says. "We have pretty high expectations, and on every level S.L.I. Systems has been terrific."

Try the S.L.I.'s search suggestions on Comet search here.

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