LookSmart Acquires Furl.net

Posted on October 8, 2004

LookSmart, an Internet search company, has announced the acquisition of Furl.net, an online service that enables users to save a full-text copy of any page on the Web, then search and share that data. Furl allows members to save copies of online articles and information in a personal archive. Furl.net allows web users to retain a copy of a web page even though the website changes or the webpage is deleted. There is ongoing debate about whether Furl violates a publisher's copyright.

Once members have saved webpages they can then find what they need by searching their personal archive and the entire Web, through a Furl toolbar or at Furl.net. Furl also provides options to share information via email subscriptions, RSS feeds, blog integration and personalized recommendations.

"Furl's technology and desktop toolbar are a perfect fit with LookSmart's search strategy," said Kevin Krim, vice president of Web properties for LookSmart. "Similar to our parental control software product Net Nanny and our FindArticles service, Furl.net helps people search and interact with high-quality sets of data specific to their needs. To that end, we're pleased to announce that we're providing 5 gigabytes of storage for each user's public archive, enough for tens of thousands of archived and searchable items."