In the world of search engines, is there any room for a hand-made site that employs thousands of self-proclaimed experts? About.com is betting on it. UnlikeYahoo!, for example, which employs a stable of full-time web surfers to update its many links, About.com hires independent contractors (called consultants or guides) to put up and maintain individual channels. About's guides are required to update their picks at least once a week, but truly obsessed web-keepers update their sites daily. Such diligence is not surprising given About's competitive policies. CEO Scott Kurnit once half-joked to Business 2.0 that the company tells new guides "they have to be better than Yahoo! in 90 days or we'll terminate them."

Rapid expansion

Early in its history, About.com obtained most of its revenue from advertising and business partners such Bigstar.com, a video retailer, and CBS Sportsline. The company introduced "guide stores" in 1998, its first stab at e-commerce. Among other things, the guide stores offer videos, books, and music CDs recommended by consultants. In October of that year, About made a deal with the major ISP Earthlink. As part of the agreement, Earthlink would put About.com on its default browser, giving the company approximately 8.5 million page views per month. In 1999 About.com further increased its brand and "buzz" through agreements with Broadcast.com and HotJobs. And that was only the beginning.

1999: a remarkable year

Stage one: the I.P.O.

1999 was About.com's year to shine. The most luminous point came early. In March 1999, the company (still going by its original name, Miningco.com) went public, trading on the Nasdaq as BOUT. Two months later it changed its name to About.com and launched an abitious print, TV, and online advertising campaign. The three-week, $15 million spree of About.com mania helped the company evolve from "primarily a portal" into a "network of destinations." Despite all the changes, however, About retained a focus on "mining" information. Fortunately for its viewers, the dig simply became easier.

Stage two: partnering with the top players

In August, About and CNN.com announced a distribution agreement that gave About a fixed position on all of CNN's pages. CNN, in return, reaped the benefits of having About's Guides throughout its site, including such sections as World News, U.S. News, Weather, Health, Travel and Entertainment, Science and Technology, Space, Style, Books, Local, Travel, and All Politics. In October 1999, About.com announced another public offering, this one involving 3,500,000 shares of common stock. A month later, it partnered with Cars.com, hoping to fuel that site's online auto sales.

Stage three: becoming a top player

By December 1999, About.com was flying high. Media Metrix ranked it the Web's ninth-largest property, putting in the company of such giants as AOL, Lycos, and Go Network. Media Metrix also declared About the fastest-growing web property among the 20 largest on the Internet. December brought fresh agreements to About.com's already impressive list. Ask Jeeves, the plain-English question-and-answer service best known for its snooty butler mascot, entered into a strategic distribution agreement with About that broadens the reach of both sites. Meanwhile, About acquired North Sky, Inc., a site known for providing web site development tools.

In the new millennium, About shows no signs of slowing its rapid growth rate. In January, it acquired ExpertCentral.com for $30.7 million in stock. ExpertCentral.com provides both free and paid "on-target advice" from a team of nearly 6,000 specialists and experts. To manage all of its new traffic, About.com engaged the help of SiteSmith, a leader in operation services support, in February 2000.

Movin' On Up