SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Business.com, the web’s leading business search engine and directory, today released its September Business.com Barometer, a monthly measurement that provides a snapshot of the rising and falling business search trends among small business Internet users. This month’s Barometer reveals that business startup activity remains very strong and the need for infrastructure and financial services are on the rise.”For the second consecutive month, queries related to small business formation dominate the top of our list,” said Jake Winebaum, CEO, Business.com. “Especially interesting is the increase in business systems-related queries. For example, queries related to Computer Security, Point-of-Sale Equipment and Phone Systems were up significantly, which indicates that not only are new businesses being formed, but existing businesses are investing in systems to support their growth. These are signs of a healthy small business environment.” 

Query data is combined across Business.com and Business.com Network partners, representing the business search needs of over 28 million unique visitors each month.(a) The results are gathered based on the query volume occurring on Business.com and the Business.com Network. The Business.com Barometer includes query data across Network partners, such as: BusinessWeek, Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com and AllBusiness.com.

About Business.com

Business.com is the leading search engine designed and organized strictly for businesses. It provides professionals easy access to business products, services, companies, news and other business information to help them get their jobs done more efficiently.

In October 2006, Business.com launched Work.com (http://www.work.com), a Web 2.0 site designed to help the more than 25 million U.S. small business owners run their businesses. Work.com features unique “How-to Guides” for more than 1,000 business topics, ranging from start-up basics to advanced management techniques. The Guides are written by business experts who can now share their expertise with others through a new form of “Expert Generated Content” (EGC).

Business.com was founded in 1999 by eCompanies. With more than five years of growth and three consecutive years of profitability, Business.com was recently named to the Inc. 500 as one of the top five fastest growing private media companies. Privately held, Business.com has attracted leading investors, including Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Evercore Partners, Reed Business Information and McGraw Hill.

(a) comScore Media Metrix June 2006

Contact:

Brew Media Relations Dena Cook, 310-600-7160 dena@brewpr.com