Barnes & Noble lands new partners
BarnesandNoble.com adds two more online marketing deals to its war chest, cementing partnerships with search engine WebCrawler and yellow page directory InfoSpace.
In a separate announcement, WebCrawler announced it would follow the lead of its parent Excite (XCIT) by introducing 15 channels that will organize content and new services available on the Web site.
Steve Riggio, Barnes & Noble's chief executive, noted both deals are central to the online division's attempt to pull in customers who frequent other sites.
"The WebCrawler agreement is a cornerstone our strategy to extend the reach of our book titles, editorial content, and community to WebCrawler users and to produce a unique book-shopping experience," he said in a statement.
The BarnesandNoble.com two deals are part of a slew of partnerships the bookseller has forged as it attempts to dominate the online market for books, which analysts predict will explode in the next few years. In order to be successful online, establishing such relationships ahead of the competition is crucial. (See related story)