about.com

New York Times Co. to sell About.com to Barry Diller's IAC

The New York Times Co. is expected to announce soon that it has reached a deal to sell the About Group, which includes Web site About.com, to Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp, a source with knowledge of the deal told CNET.

IAC is expected to pay $300 million in cash for the struggling information site, with the deal closing in the next couple of weeks, the New York Times Co. confirmed in a statement late Sunday.

"About's early expertise in search engine optimization, expert content and revenues from cost-per-click and display advertising made it a valuable component of … Read more

Barry Diller gets into bidding war for About.com, report says

Barry Diller, one of the premiere dealmakers in media, has bid $300 million for struggling About.com, The New York Times' information Web site, according to Reuters.

The offer from Diller's holding company, IAC/Interactivecorp, is about $30 million higher than a rival bid from Answers.com, Reuters reported.

The Times announced on August 8 that it was in discussions about selling its About Group but didn't identify the interested parties. Answers.com President Peter Horan is the former head of About.com.

About.com is designed to be a guide for Internet users and offers tips, advice, … Read more

Guides by experts

About.com is a database of how-to guides and informational pages. Unlike crowd-sourced guide services, About only uses guides written by credible experts hired by the company. About.com picks its guides to write in certain subject areas. Their work is then overseen by a professional editor who copy edits, fact checks, and offers advice to improve their writing.

About's business model revolves around advertising and being listed in search results. Each topic page has its own contextual ads that are usually related to the topic. Users are then free to access the content without having to pay a … Read more

Webware 100 winner: About.com

Site: About.com Category: Search & Reference

About.com is a database of how-to guides and informational pages. Unlike crowd-sourced guide services, About only uses guides written by credible experts it's hired. About picks its guides to write in certain subject areas. Their work is then overseen by a professional editor who does copy editing, fact checking, and offers advice on improvements.

About's business model revolves around advertising and being picked up in search results. Each topic page has its own contextual ads which are usually related to the topic. About can also sell advertisers space on certain … Read more

Social-ad firm Appssavvy raises $3.1 million

Appssavvy, a start-up that connects advertisers looking for "social media" campaigns with developers and firms that will build widgets for them or get their ads on existing apps, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $3.1 million in Series A venture funding. The round was led by True Ventures, with previous investor Scott Kurnit, founder of About.com, also participating.

Earlier this month, Appssavvy struck a deal with NBC Universal, making it "the exclusive advertising-sales team for the NBC News iCue social-media application."

"Social media has the potential to connect marketers with consumers in … Read more

Barnes & Noble launches Quamut: How-to's for newbies

Bookseller Barnes & Noble launched a new how-to site this morning called Quamut. Like About.com, the aim is to provide simple instructional pieces about all subjects from barbecue to bourbon (currently the most popular tag on the site). Today there are more than 1,000 topics, but the goal is to add several hundred a month while updating items as time goes by.

Unlike Wikipedia, and other wiki-based how-to services the content is provided not by the crowds, but a small group of hand-picked human editors--similar to Mahalo.com. The guides are copy edited and fact checked, then categorized into one of five genres.

Despite all this automation, users aren't entirely left out. Articles can be tagged and bookmarked. There's also a Wiki-based sister site that lets users create their own how-to guides, although these aren't integrated into Quamut's content listings or search results.

To make money off Quamut, Barnes & Noble has gone with business model that combines ads and print media. There are regular ads that make their way next to the content, including links to (guess what) books for sale on each subject directly from Barnes & Noble. Users can also purchase a copy of the content for home use or reference as either a digital PDF copy or a laminated chart that details each step. Why you'd want these is pretty straight-forward: there's no print button, and articles are split up into over a dozen pages sometimes--keeping you from saving each article in its entirety as a PDF (unless you're patient). The PDFs are also in full color and pretty snazzy looking. You can check out today's example after the break.

In many ways Quamut reminds me a lot of About.com before it got cluttered up with too much advertising and a disjointed and overwhelming navigation system. This is a site I could send my mom to without worrying about her getting lost or overwhelmed--which is what I think the creators were going for.

About.com CEO to step down

UPDATE 5 p.m. PST with company confirmation

About.com Chief Executive Scott Meyer is leaving the company after almost three years at the site and almost eight years at parent company The New York Times Co., the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Meyer's last day will be March 6, after which he will take some time off, he told according PaidContent.org.

A spokeswoman for The New York Times confirmed the report and said the company would be looking for a new About.com chief executive from within and outside the company.

In a memo to staff, Meyer wrote … Read more