Key Impacts
- Improved performance and availability with no changes to search application
- Innovative implementation enhanced machine-to-machine performance with no infrastructure build out
- Up to 60% of network latency eliminated
LookSmart delivers Internet advertising via targeted search results. End users visit LookSmart's sites and the sites of LookSmart's distribution partners to conduct their searches. The contents of a search are parsed and evaluated by LookSmart Web applications to identify advertising that should be most relevant to the end user; the goal is to produce optimized search results for the end user and optimized ad spend results for advertisers. The variability and performance limitations of the Internet – the network upon which LookSmart relies to deliver its search results – created a series of distinct challenges.
Latency is an acknowledged and routine aspect of conducting business over the Internet, yet LookSmart would need to find new ways to minimize its impact. The chosen solution would need to accelerate dynamic application output as well as be tunable to the unique requirements of real-time machine-to-machine or application-to-application transactions. The distance between some important partners and LookSmart's server infrastructure amplified the extent of the challenges raised by Internet latency. By implementing Akamai Web Application Accelerator, LookSmart overcame latency issues and reduced critical search and page assembly times significantly, resulting in improved customer experiences and faster transactions without costly infrastructure buildout.
"We became Akamai's first customer in 'machine to machine' Internet acceleration, Akamai stepped up to the challenge and delivered on their promises. They were more than willing to do what it took to make us successful."
—Michael Grubb, CTO, LookSmart
