Rival FindWhat Seeks to Undermine Overture

Once again, investors in Overture Services (OVER Quote) must decide whether new competition poses a major threat or a minor irritation.

This time around, the question revolves around a service scheduled to go fully operational this week from FindWhat.com (FWHT Quote), a company that, like Overture, operates a pay-per-click Internet search engine through which companies can target advertisements at Internet users based on the keywords those users are using in their searches.

Though the estimate-beating Overture boasts revenue 16 times that of FindWhat.com, and though FindWhat.com's service -- for which it has only one customer -- is barely up and running, FindWhat.com's venture takes aim at what Overture's critics say is Overture's chief vulnerability: the market power of the largest search engines and Internet portals on whose properties Overture operates its search engine. ...