In the News

Reproduced with permission from Revolution USA

Online Dictionary Sites Create Strategic Partnership

August 8, 2000, New York - Web users wanting to know the correct spelling of "Paleolithic" will now be able to access identical dictionary and thesaurus information from Merriam-Webster and yourDictionary.com.

The two word sites have forged an alliance that makes Merriam-Webster, creator of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the preferred reference source on yourDictionary.com's site. Merriam-Webster will be co-branded and accessed in yourDictionary.com's "Quick Lookup" function and its YD Lookup Button, which allows web surfers to search for definitions by copying the button to their browser.

Deborah Burns, director of marketing for Merriam-Webster, said, "Our goal in licensing our dictionary is to simply become the dictionary of choice on the web." The company has a huge print heritage but Burns said it wants to build a stronger online presence for its site at www.merriam-webster.com and expand overseas.

"To become ubiquitous, we've agreed to a number of licensing agreements," continued Burns. "Our online attitude has always been that we should make our dictionary available to a number of sites instead of holding it ourselves."

Other Merriam-Webster licensees include CBS Healthwatch-Medscape, Palm VII and a CD-ROM for General Mills' cereals.

About 35 percent of yourDictionary.com's traffic comes from outside of the United States. Currently there are more than 230 online dictionaries available from yourDictionary.com. An advisory council of top linguists helps yourDictionary.com choose the best dictionary for each language.

"There are currently about 7,000 dialects and languages in the world and half of them are headed towards extinction," said Paul JJ Payack, president and CEO of yourDictionary.com. "Some of these languages consist of only a few hundred words and there is little chance that they will ever get published. The web is the perfect place to ensure that our heritage of languages is not lost."

Recently, Merriam-Webster was honored with a webby award when its WordCentral www.wordcentral.com site was named best educational web site of the year.

©2001 Revolution USA