GoTo.Com Announces First Round Of Financing Totaling More Than $6 Million, Led By Draper Fisher Jurvetson

GoTo.com, the new simpler search engine, is now also the fastest growing search engine in the industry. GoTo.com's simpler interface, with better results, has driven enormous user growth and attracted new financing

PASADENA, May 19, 1998 - GoTo.com, the new simpler search engine which allows Web sites to purchase placement within search results using a real-time competitive bidding process, has completed its first round of financing totaling in excess $6 million. Primary investors in the round include Draper Fisher Jurvetson and idealab! Capital Partners.

"These investment partnerships provide GoTo.com with the resources needed to fully implement our vision of an efficient market for consumer attention," commented Jeffrey Brewer, CEO of GoTo.com. "Our investors recognize that an open and transparent marketplace is the only scalable model for meeting the needs of consumers for simpler, more relevant search results and for providing Web sites with a targeted, cost-effective and accountable way to drive traffic to their content."

"Existing consumer search tools are confusing, inefficient and open to behind the scenes manipulation," commented Timothy C. Draper, Founder and Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "Currently there is a limited supply of fairly priced targeted online advertising. GoTo.com's model greatly expands the supply of targeted and cost-effective marketing opportunities for e-commerce sites."

Bidding For Higher Placement Offers Big Benefit to Advertisers GoTo.com uses the simple approach of empowering the marketplace to determine the ranking and relevance of advertiser listings. As a consequence of the open-market bidding system, GoTo.com advertisers are aware of the amounts their competitors are bidding for a click-through within the search results for a given search term. Any advertiser can increase a bid for a listing in order to obtain a higher ranking. The model is similar to a yellow pages directory in which advertisers are accordingly charged for more prominent placement and greater exposure. The major breakthrough with GoTo.com is that advertisers only pay for actual visits to their sites instead of for simple "exposures", thereby providing the ultimate, accountable pay-for-performance marketing opportunity. The market interplay between consumers and advertisers determines the value of a given click-through.

Search made simple, Great Results

GoTo.com provides users with the fastest, easiest and friendliest way to find the most relevant Web sites on any topic. GoTo.com's simple and uncluttered interface helps visitors to find what they are looking for in a very straightforward manner. GoTo.com's various methods of ranking sites guarantee that the listings returned are appropriate and highly relevant to each query. High quality e-commerce listings are ranked according to a free market auction process for each search term. Finely categorized editorial listings are displayed according to quality ratings, titles and descriptions, and generated by a group of topic-focused content experts. For search terms where there are neither e-commerce listings nor editorial suggestions, algorithmically ranked listings are retrieved from a database of the largest existing index of full-text Web documents. GoTo.com currently has a beta version of the site online with consumer launch scheduled for the beginning of June.

About Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a leader in start-up venture capital, having invested in over 150 high-tech companies. In the majority of cases, they are the lead investor for a company's first round of financing. The firm focuses on information technology businesses with enormous market potential, and helps entrepreneurs achieve their maximum potential through team building, partnerships, advice and support, as well as investments. By pursuing a people-focused approach to venture capital investing, Draper Fisher Jurvetson continues to fund entrepreneurs with the energy, vision, experience, and desire to build great companies. DFJ'S 40 Internet investments include HotMail, Four11, Kana, Release Software, Tumbleweed Software. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is located in Redwood City, CA and can be found on the Web at www.drapervc.com.

About idealab! Capital Partners

idealab! Capital Partners (ICP) is a new Southern California venture firm focused on the Internet and new technology opportunities. ICP is a sister entity of idealab!, the leading early stage Internet incubator in America. In addition to idealab! portfolio companies (Wedding Channel, eToys.com, Tickets.com), ICP investments include other firms such as Centraal, the creators of the Real Name System. idealab! Capital Partners is headed by managing directors Bill Elkus and Bill Gross, also founder of idealab!. The company can be found on the Web at www.icp.com.

About GoTo.com

GoTo.com is another idealab! company. GoTo.com was founded in late 1997. Jeffrey Brewer, co-founder of CitySearch, was named CEO in February 1998. A proof-of-concept version of the service was introduced at the TED8 conference on February 21, 1998. The company has experienced tremendous growth in traffic during this pre-launch period, currently generating impressions at the run rate 12 million per month. GoTo.com is planning a major consumer launch for June, backed by a multi-million dollar marketing campaign. The company currently has 25 employees and is located in Pasadena, California.

About idealab!

idealab! is the nation's largest Internet incubator, with more than 20 businesses in various stages of development, employing more than 1,000 people worldwide. Other idealab! companies include CitySearch, which is the industry leading local information service; eToys.com, which is the leading online toy retailer; PeopleLink, Tickets.com and IntraNetics. idealab! is based in Pasadena, California.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding GoTo.com Inc.'s business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.