Mooter was founded in February 2001, to develop computer technology that enabled web users to better organise their search results through personalisation. Mooter secured an R&D Start Grant of $273,000 in September 2001, $1m of seed capital during 2002 and launched the beta version of the search engine www.mooter.com in October 2003.
A patent was first filed in the USA in November 2003 to protect the Mooter technology consisting of methods of applying psychological parameters to the online search process, which involves both enhancing the search experience for the user and increasing the advertising revenue derived from online activity. The Patent was published in the US on 30 June 2005. Further protection by way of a filing under the International Patent Cooperation Treaty is currently in process.
In February 2005, Nanyang, a Sydney-based venture capital provider, invested $3.3 million to finance the further development of the Mooter technology, at which time the Company changed its name to Mooter Media Limited.
On the 22nd December 2005 Mooter Media listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: MMZ) after an IPO to raise $8 million, through which Fairfax Media, one of Australia’s leading media companies, became a 20% shareholder.
The company has transitioned away from providing search engine services and cluster technologies for enterprise search and is now focused on providing a platform that can improve the financial return for advertisers and publishers from online advertising.
In October 2006, the Company raised a further $4.5 million through a Private Share Placement and a Share Purchase Plan.
The Mooter adVantage™ platform is designed to predict, personalise and deliver more relevant advertisements to online end users.
Using Mooter adVantage™, publishers and advertisers can maximize their online returns by dynamically analysing online content pages and matching them with relevant advertising, at the same time as providing the internet user with relevant and appealing advertisements, which are more likely to be of interest to the advertisers’ target audience and consequently acted upon.
Mooter has since developed other technology to help publishers and others to increase monetisation of online advertising including Mooter adVantage™, Mooter onPage™, Mooter goSegment™ and Mooter adFeed™.