Looksmart shares strut on "sticky" study

LookSmart (Nasdaq:LOOK) jumped as high as 21 percent in initial trading Friday, following an announcement that Media Life Magazine ranked LookSmart 13th among the Top 15 Web Properties on the Media Life Sticky Index.

Shares in the recently public Web directory and search service were up 2 3/8 to 22 3/8 Friday morning.

The Media Life Sticky Index, which ranks Web properties by tracking the amount of time a user spends on one site, using Nielsen/NetRatings' ranking data, included LookSmart in the company of leading online auction, e-commerce, entertainment and search sites.

LookSmart is looking for a way to distinquish itself from competitors such as Ask Jeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ) and Goto.com (Nasdaq: GOTO) and established portals such as Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

Other sites raked in the index, which surveyed the period from Aug. 9 - Aug. 15, In order of stickiness, are (1) eBay, (2) Yahoo!, (3) MSN, (4) Excite, (5) GO, (6) AOL, (7) Blue Mountain Arts, (8) Microsoft, (9) Time Warner, (10) Lycos, (11) Amazon, (12) Snap, (13) LookSmart, (14) AltaVista, and (15) Real Networks.

The San Fransisco-based Internet directory company LookSmart also announced Friday it has decided to locate its Scandinavian headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.