BellSouth's Alliance with Google Connects RealPages.com Advertisers to Local Consumers
RealSearch Customers Can Take Advantage of Google AdWords
ATLANTA & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - October 28, 2004 - RealPages.com®
from BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) the Southeast's leading online yellow pages
and Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), developer of the award-winning Google®
search engine, today announced an agreement whereby RealPages.com will
become the first yellow pages publisher authorized to sell advertising
through Google AdWords® to small and medium-sized local businesses.
Under the multi-year agreement, BellSouth will include Google AdWords
as an integral part of its RealSearch offering, a patent-pending search
engine marketing service designed for small and medium-sized local businesses.
By aligning with the BellSouth salesforce, Google can now reach more
small and medium-sized local businesses in the Southeast with Google
AdWords. With AdWords, Google's performance-based search advertising
program, advertisers present marketing messages to potential customers
at the precise moment they are looking for information related to the
products and services the advertiser offers. Google AdWords enables
select RealSearch customers to generate leads across the Google Network,
which reaches more than 80 percent of U.S. Internet users through sites
such as Google.com, AOL, BellSouth.Net, and Earthlink among others (source:
MediaMetrix, September 2004).
"Helping our advertisers grow their businesses is at the core of The
Real Yellow Pages and RealPages.com's success," said Elmer Smith, president
of BellSouth Advertising & Publishing. "We believe this partnership
will allow RealSearch customers to take advantage of the extensive reach
of the Google Network, which will aid them in attracting more and more
customers."
"Our relationship with BellSouth enables Google to leverage an established,
market-leading salesforce to reach small and medium-sized local businesses
across the Southeast," said Sukhinder Singh, general manager of Google
Local and Third Party Sales. "Google is excited to add a new way to
reach prospective advertisers, while continuing to provide users with
relevant local information and advertisements."
Google currently provides advertisers with the ability to reach customers
in local markets through a variety of AdWords targeting options including
regional and city level, as well as through an address-based radius
feature or by specifying latitude and longitude points.
With RealSearch Engine Solutions from BellSouth, advertisers reach potential
customers when consumers are actively looking for information about
products and services online. BellSouth offers a full-service solution
that sends a guaranteed number of targeted visitors from search engines
directly to a customer's website.
Smith said by managing the local search
solution for advertisers, BellSouth is saving its customers time and
money and allowing them to benefit from search engine marketing while
maintaining focus on their day-to-day business operations.
"The phenomenal growth of local search, combined with BellSouth's one-of-a-kind
RealSearch product incorporating Google's AdWords, positions BellSouth
as a primary partner for our online advertisers," Smith said.
According to The Kelsey Group, provider of strategic research, analysis,
data and competitive metrics on yellow pages, electronic directories
and local media, the local paid search advertising market generated
$45 million in 2003 and is expected to reach as high as $2.5 billion
by 2008 in advertising revenue.
Businesses interested in more information on RealSearch Engine Solutions
from BellSouth can visit www.advertising.realpages.com.
The agreement is the expansion of an alliance that was announced earlier
this year. In April, the two companies announced an agreement whereby
Google's search results and targeted advertisements were made available
through BellSouth's Internet services home page www.bellsouth.net
for Internet customers.
About BellSouth Advertising and Publishing
BellSouth Advertising & Publishing Corporation (BAPCO) is the leading
provider of print and Internet Yellow Pages products in the southeast.
BAPCO and LM Berry Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of BellSouth,
publishes 63 million copies of the print Yellow Pages in more than 500
editions in the nine-state BellSouth region. Users referred to The Real Yellow Pages® from BellSouth nearly 2 billion times last year and
made nearly 160 million searches on RealPages.com® (www.realpages.com).
The Real Yellow Pages is a powerful information resource, linking buyers
and sellers, with approximately 85 percent of consumers who reference
the directories' most frequently used headings making a purchase based
on their findings.
About BellSouth Corporation
BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications services company
headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth serves nearly 50 million
local, long distance, Internet and wireless customers in the United
States and 12 other countries.
Consistently recognized for customer satisfaction, BellSouth provides
complete communications solutions to the residential and business markets.
In the residential market, BellSouth offers DSL high-speed Internet
access and long distance, advanced voice features and other services.
The company's BellSouth Answers package combines local and long distance
service with an array of calling features; wireless data, voice and
e-mail services; and high-speed DSL or dial-up Internet service and
Cingular Wireless. In the business market, BellSouth serves small, medium
and large businesses providing secure, reliable local and long distance
voice and data networking solutions. BellSouth also provides online
and directory advertising services through RealPages.com and The Real Yellow Pages from BellSouth. BellSouth owns 40 percent of Cingular
Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless company, which provides
innovative wireless voice and data services.
About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around
the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D.
students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property
in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program,
which is the largest and fastest growing in the industry, provides businesses
of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web
experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with
offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information,
visit www.google.com.

