Direct Hit Inc has signed a one-year licensing agreement with Wired Digital, the producer of the HotBot internet search engine. Under terms of the deal, HotBot will use Direct Hit’s Popularity Engine to enhance its results. The idea is to provide web users with a list of the most popular web results, based on records of which web pages past users chose after making similar search requests. By extracting behavioral data out of the mass of web stats, Direct Hit is not unlike Alexa Internet’s surf engine (CI No 3,442) – except that Alexa travels the web with surfers, while Direct Hit was always intended as a refinement of existing search portals. Fortunately for those who prefer the road less traveled by, HotBot’s loyal fans will still get their search results listed in the traditional way, with the option to view the top of the pops available if they so choose. á
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