FindWhat.com Hosts Game to Draw Traffic

A new entrant into the pay-for-placement search engine ranks, FindWhat.com, on Thursday launched a $1 million lottery game in an effort to draw traffic to its site.

Visitors to the FindWhat.com Web site will have up to five chances per day to try to win the $1 million grand prize, and they’ll be awarded new opportunities for each use of the FindWhat site search. The game will continue until June 16, 2000 or until the grand prize of $1 million is awarded.

“The search and win game provides visitors with a fun, exciting, and potentially rewarding way to experience FindWhat.com and to discover the better search result that our Internet search engine delivers,” says Courtney Phillips Jones, chairman of FindWhat.com.

The company will be promoting the game through radio and outdoor advertising, and through its affiliate network.

Prizes and money giveaways are growing in popularity as sites seek new ways of getting attention, at a time when dot-com advertising is cluttering traditional media.

The most high profile site is likely iWon, the CBS investment that’s giving away $10,000 a day and $1 million every month.

FindWhat.com is a pay-for-placement search engine in the mold of GoTo.com, where advertisers bid on how much they’re willing to pay per click, and are given placement relative to what they bid.