SEARCH123 CELEBRATES TWO YEARS ONLINE, LAUNCHES MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FOR CUSTOMERS AND THE INDUSTRY

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. (Oyea..ctober 20, 2002) - Search123, a leading performance-based online advertising company, celebrates the second anniversary of launching its pay-per-click search engine today. In tandem with the milestone, the company has launched the first edition of its monthly newsletter, Search123 News.

While today marks the second anniversary of its service going online, Search123 was officially founded in June of 1999. In the 16 months leading up to its launch, the company invested heavily in developing the technology to drive its search engine and affiliate distribution network. One of the early entrants to the paid search segment of online advertising, today Search123 boasts more than 400 Traffic Partners, including Juno and NetZero, Everyone.net, WWW.com and hundreds of other publishers who monetize their existing site traffic with paid search. Collectively Search123's network generates in excess of 60 million searches per month for its more than 5,000 advertisers.

"Celebrating two years online is truly a testament to our dedicated team of technologists and customer service professionals who built this company on a fraction of the resources of our larger competitors," said James Beriker, CEO, Search123. "We're also grateful to the loyal advertisers and our network of high quality traffic partners who have made what we do possible."

In honor of its anniversary, the company has launched Search123 News, a newsletter geared mainly toward its advertiser clients, but also addressing issues relevant to its traffic partners and all search engine marketing professionals. In addition to industry commentary from James Beriker and a review of recent company news, monthly features include the Performance Center, outlining campaign optimization suggestions; Reader Feedback, addressing the issues and concerns of Search123 advertisers; and Industry News, including highlights from throughout the world of search engine marketing over the past month. Anyone can subscribe to the newsletter by sending an e-mail to subscribe@search123.com.

Search123 remains committed to leading the evolution of search engine marketing and online advertising technology as it looks optimistically toward the future. As the company builds upon its pay-per-click search engine business of today, it is leveraging its acquisition of Simpli.com earlier this year to develop online advertising optimization technologies designed to improve the relevance of searches for end users, thus increasing the e-commerce productivity of the medium for both online advertisers and distribution partners.

About Search123

Based in Westlake Village, Calif., Search123 (www.search123.com) is a privately held cost-per-click search engine in which advertisers bid for priority placement on search result pages and pay only when users click on a listing. By creating revenue-sharing relationships with its distribution partners, Search123 drives highly targeted consumer traffic to its merchant advertisers. Search123 is committed to delivering results to its advertisers and distribution partners, and to continually evolving the business and technology of the paid search segment of the online advertising industry.