Google rival unpins banner ads

Fast Search & Transfer's AlltheWeb.com has dropped the use of banner advertisements in a Web site redesign that recalls the look and feel of rival search provider Google.

The redesign, unveiled Tuesday, comes amid an overall decline in the use of banner ads online, as advertisers move on to larger, more eye-catching formats as well as to the kind of simple, text-only marketing popularized by paid search listing pioneer Overture Services. According to research from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the use of banner ads dropped by 4 percent in the first half of 2002 from the first half in 2001.

Oslo, Norway-based Fast's decision follows similar moves by search companies AltaVista and Ask Jeeves, which dropped the banner-ad format last year.

Banner ads "don't add value and I think they're on they're way out," said Peter Bauert, director of business development for AlltheWeb.com. "Any time you have a standard form like that, people start to ignore it."

Similar to Google, the new AlltheWeb.com design offers little more than a search box that lets people query an index of more than 2.1 billion text, image and audio files.

Last week, Overture bought Fast's Web search technology and AlltheWeb.com for nearly $100 million in cash. The Pasadena, Calif.-based company is betting that Fast's highly regarded search technology will complement its paid search service and help it better compete with Google, which offers both paid and Web search.