Search engines succeed because of their algorithms, not their domain names. The ability to deliver valid, relevant, reliable and useful results in a novel way is what drives traffic and helps companies break into a market like this with well-established huge players, not a list of results that seems to be derived simply by plugging user's location into Google maps.
What, in other words, does SEEK offer that you can't get already from typing "dentist dallas" into google, yahoo, bing, etc.? Why in the world would any of those companies feel the need to pay millions of dollars for what amounts to a flashy cover page with no name recognition and no patentable source code that I can discern?
Why is no one talking about the actual search technology under the hood of these websites? Is there any? Or are results ranked simply by who paid the most advertising money? Does SEEK even have a tech team? Who does the coding? And I don't mean website design, that's purely aesthetic. The idea that some company is going to be sold for tens of millions because it owns the rights to a bunch of domain names is ridiculous. There has to be a *product* underneath that is new and useful for people to take notice in any substantial way.
It seems to me like TheDirectory is missing some key ingredients for success even as a mid-level search technology. None of the PRs or CCs seem to tout or even address SEEK's technology, which is where the value is, but only the flashy surface stuff. Domain names don't equate to value all by themselves. This isn't 1993.
