See Spottt Run

Does this sound familiar? A new company initiative launched today at TechCrunch 40 Conference 2007 in San Francisco called Spottt is setting up a system where like-minded Web sites can post ads on each others sites for free. If you’ve been around the Internet for awhile it might, and even Spottt founder Philip Kaplan owned up to it very early in his presentation.

“Yeah, LinkExchange,” he nodded, referring to the now defunct network of Web sites that was launched in 1996 and purchased by Microsoft in 1998, primarily for its mailing list, according to Kaplan.

LinkExchange had a successful run in the early days of the Internet, and even claimed eBay as one of its first ten listings, as Kaplan reminded the audience. Now it seems that he and Spottt are looking to replicate that system, with the help of parent company and ad network AdBrite. They’re hoping to attract small and long tail publishers looking for easy advertising options.

With the logo “You pet my back, I’ll pet yours,” Spottt itself will make its revenue through selling inventory in a two-for-one system. When a publisher places two ads from a Spottt partner, the reciprocating company will run one ad from that publisher and one from Spottt, Kaplan said.

Already the site seemed to have some support in the form of TechCrunch 40 forum contributor Guy Kawasaki, the CEO of early-stage venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures. “I like it because as a blogger and a Web site owner I truly understand the pain you are solving,” he said.