Search in the first-generation is over, but that turned them all into companies valued at several billion dollars along the way. Its syndication network lets Web sites use its simple search box and has 40,000 networked now. Each gets paid for bringing in a searcher, by the search result. Advertisers pay for that result click. Performance-based ad sales.
Searchers also come in via licensed search that keeps searchers on third-party Web sites.
On the upside, ad rates are market-driven by capitalism. Buyers bidding for top slots, top slots selling to top buyers. I see it in line with recent Internet IPOs that have done well first day but the triple-digit runs are probably gone for any Internet IPO for now. We'll see once the IPO light on this one goes green. Internet StockTracker will deliver to you all the statistics you need to assess the week's activity.