Indicators Strong for Small Businesses; Business Startup Activity on the Rise; Business.com Releases August Business Barometer Results

Business Wire, Sept 18, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- Business.com, the web's leading business search engine and directory, today released its August Business.com Barometer, a monthly measurement that provides a snapshot of the rising and falling business search trends among small business Internet users. This month's Barometer reveals that business startup activity is on the rise and existing small businesses are increasing their efforts to secure financing for their business.

"Small business formation and growth-related activity is evident in this month's Barometer," said Jake Winebaum, CEO, Business.com. "Especially interesting is the increase in transactional related queries. Queries related to Businesses for Sale were up significantly - number nine overall and number three in the top gainer category. Tracking with this, we saw Business Valuation Techniques as a new top 10 entrant as sellers are sensing the demand from potential buyers."

Topping the Business.com Barometer for August are queries related to Starting a Small Business. Another start-up related query, Franchise Opportunities, is also on the rise, as the #5 gainer month-over-month.

Top 10 Categories
August 2006

Current           Previous
Month Rank       Month Rank        Category Name

1                     2            Starting a Small Business
2                    12            Business Cards
3                     6            Office Furniture
4                     4            Tax ID Search

5                     3            Display Cases and Racks
6                     9            Temp Agencies
7                    10            Small Business Credit Cards
8                    13            Ecommerce
9                    43            Businesses for Sale
10                   11            Business Valuation Techniques


Top Gainers
August vs. July 2006

                                     % Change
                                   from Previous
Category Name                          Month

Small Business Loans                     74%
Commercial Real Estate                   66%
Businesses for Sale                      61%
Business Toll Free Number                44%
Franchise Opportunities                  43%
Information Technology (IT) Services     42%
Banking                                  31%
Business Cards                           29%
Container Sales and Leasing              26%
Local and Long-Distance Carriers         21%


Top Losers
August vs. July 2006

                                     % Change
                                   from Previous
Category Name                          Month

Online Security                         -48%
Groupware Software                      -43%
Public Records Address Search           -41%
Restaurants and Foodservice             -32%
Financial Statements                    -32%
Strategic Planning                      -31%
Recruiting                              -26%
Point of Sale Equipment                 -26%
Bank Foreclosures                       -25%
Display Cases and Racks                 -23%

In terms of growth, Small Business Loans-related queries are number one on the Barometer, showing an increase of 74% month over month. Small Business Credit Card queries are in the top 10 for the second consecutive month. Both are good indicators of growth as small businesses look to expand.

Query data is combined across Business.com and Business.com Network partners, representing the business search needs of over 28 million unique visitors each month.* The results are gathered based on the query volume occurring on Business.com and the Business.com Network The Business.com Barometer includes query data across Network partners, such as: BusinessWeek, Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com and AllBusiness.com.

About Business.com

Business.com helps small business decision-makers solve their most pressing business problems and realize their most compelling opportunities. As the largest business-to-business search engine and directory, Business.com makes it easy to find the most useful business websites, products, and services saving our users time and money.

Business.com's proprietary taxonomy and classification system of over 65,000 business categories allows professionals to intuitively locate the most relevant and authoritative business information, without consumer clutter.

As the leading vertical search engine for business, Business.com attracts more than 3.2 million diverse business owners and decision makers and reaches another 28 million through its distribution network, which includes top-tier publishing partners such as Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, Businessweek.com and Internet.com.

Business.com was founded in 1999 by eCompanies. Still privately-held, Business.com added Benchmark Capital as a preferred stockholder in 2004, whose portfolio includes franchise companies such as Critical Path, eBay and Jupiter Networks.

For more information, please visit www.business.com.