Thumbshots Gives Away Million Dollar Software Service for Free

MONTREAL, QC, March 15, 2004--Thumbshots.org is giving away a million dollars worth of software service to search engines, directories and Web sites. Hundreds of Web sites are already taking advantage of this free service.

Thumbshots are thumbnail screenshots of web pages providing visual functionality for search engines and directories. Thumbshots.org (http://www.thumbshots.org) is an open initiative by Thumbshots.com (http://www.thumbshots.com).

"The Internet is a big scary jungle. I get pop-up ads and sleazy Web sites asking me to download virus-infected software to the point that searching on the Internet has become very annoying," complains Robbie Samuel, an avid surfer. Thumbshots.com is contributing back to the Internet community by helping people regain control of their surfing. Users are able to see exactly where they are going with thumbshots. With over 150 millions thumbshots given out for free every month, millions of Web surfers worldwide are benefiting from this open cause.

Four million thumbshots are automatically generated every month to keep the images accurate and up-to-date. "If to do this manually, it would take the equivalent of 133 thousands work hours to create and update 4 million pictures every month at an average rate of 2 minutes per thumbshot. At $7.50 per hour, this boils down to $1 million worth of manual labor every month," says Jeff from Thumbshots.org.

Thumbshots are being used on the DMOZ Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org), the world's largest human-powered directory, with over 60,000 volunteers keeping the directory fresh. DMOZ Open Directory is used by millions of people everyday and powers the core directory services for Google, AOL, Lycos, Netscape, HotBot and hundreds of others.

About Thumbshots.org

Thumbshots.org (http://www.thumbshots.org) is an open initiative by Thumbshots.com that contributes back to the Internet community. Thumbshots.org provides free thumbshot preview images available for download and by direct request. Thumbshots.org is made possible through community efforts and donations.

About Thumbshots.com

Thumbshots.com (http://www.thumbshots.com) is the leading provider of thumbshots for Internet search and directories. Thumbshots.com provide and manage some of the world's largest document and imaging repositories.