Terespondo.com. Comically tiny team compared to Overture. Yahoo/Overture bought it in 2005. At our high point we handled search advertising for 7 out of the top 10 sites in Latin America: UOL, Buscape, etc. Even MSN became a customer.
Yeah. :) That was by accident though. Tere started out as a metasearch engine and answers service. (I was an early contractor. I left for a few years then came back after they switched to ads and landed the MSN contract.)
The technology was very lean and cheap -- Lackner, Leo, Drago, Paterlini, and Freitas are real hackers. But it wasn't sophisticated compared to Google then or Panama now. Our advantage was that when the phone rang a real human said "Bom Dia".
Amy's problem is not rare. It's one of Google's weak points.
