(24 July 2006 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The Guardian Media Group (GMG) in the UK has signed a search deal - across 36 of its regional newspaper sites - with Web and mobile search company InfoSpace.

The agreement, which includes sites such as Manchester Evening News and the Surrey Advertiser will allow GMG Regional Newspapers’ website users to query all of the major search engines in one click via InfoSpace’s unique metasearch technology. Additionally, InfoSpace will provide a range of associated search applications including contextual advertising and the company’s media toolbar.

InfoSpace Europe, VP web search Dominic Trigg explains, “With InfoSpace, GMG Regional Newspapers can offer its audience the best results from the most popular search engines – Ask, Google, MSN, Yahoo! and more - all in one place. The service is private-labelled and therefore enhances the newspapers’ own look and feel. In addition they will receive a search product with an excellent track record of customer support and reliability.”

GMG Regional Newspapers COO David Benjamin says, “We were looking for a provider that could deliver top-of-the-range search solutions with solid support to match. InfoSpace’s metasearch technology creates a platform for us to generate more relevant search results for our audience, whilst driving greater revenues across all of our sites. Furthermore, the InfoSpace team has added outstanding value through its creative approach and understanding of our audience and internal objectives”.