Direct Hit Technologies

{{about||the pharmacodiagnostic test for breast cancer|DirectHit}}

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Direct Hit Technologies, Inc. was a Boston-based search engine company that provided search engine services to major web portals and operated a public search engine at directhit.com.{{cite web | title=Direct Hit Tools Help Surfers Search Smarter | website=pcworld.com | date=1999-01-27 | url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/9531/direct_hit_tools_help_surfers_search_smarter.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081019065009/http://www.pcworld.com/article/9531/direct_hit_tools_help_surfers_search_smarter.html | archive-date=2008-10-19 | url-status=dead }} Founded in April 1998 by Gary Culliss and Mike Cassidy, the Direct Hit search engine utilized the anonymous searching activity of millions of web searchers to rank web sites based on a number of patented algorithms,{{cite web | title=Inventor: Gary Culliss | website=Google Patents | url=https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Gary+Culliss}} such as how long searchers spent viewing each web page and where a site was ranked in the original search results list.{{cite interview |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/tech/techthursday/dotcom/talk/walker012899.htm |publisher=Washington Post |interviewer=Leslie Walker |title=.COM – LIVE |work=Tech Thursday|date=January 28, 1999 |first=Gary |last=Culliss}} The Direct Hit search engine technology was invented by Gary Culliss and is the subject of the following US Patents: US Pat. 6,006,222,{{cite patent |title=Method for organizing information |country=US |status=patent |number=6006222A}} US Pat. 6,078,916{{cite patent |title=Method for organizing information |country=US |status=patent |number=6078916}} and US Pat. 6,014,665{{cite patent |title=Method for organizing information |country=US |status=patent |number=6014665}} all entitled "Method for organizing information." Direct Hit filed to go public through Robertson Stephens{{cite web |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1092756/0000912057-99-010346.txt |date=December 22, 1999 |title=SEC Registration for Direct Hit Technologies, Inc.}} in late 1999, and was acquired by Ask Jeeves in January 2002.{{cite web | title=Ask Jeeves to acquire Direct Hit for $506 million | website=CNET | date=2002-01-03 | url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/ask-jeeves-to-acquire-direct-hit-for-506-million/}}