A New Jersey-based startup has launched an Internet search service that permits users free access to information that normally requires a paid subscription. Why would publications agree to this
arrangement? Why do newspapers and reference periodicals give away content that subs are paying for? "If you want to be relevant, you have to show up," says Ash Nashed, cofounder of Congoo. He notes
that content providers also benefit from user information and ad-revenue-generating page views. Congoo's challenge will be to get users to download its toolbar. Unlike most other search engines,
the software installion is required before the service will function. "A lot of what you find when you do a Web search is not credentialed sources," says Nashed, who previously served as CEO of
Choice Media, a health resource and advertising network that was bought out by Polaris Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and the Carlyle Group last year. "Certainly [Congoo] wouldn't be as comprehensive as
LexisNexis or Factiva, but we also don't cost thousands of dollars a year."
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