WebProNews

The newest trend in search engines may come from a Reply. Reply has tried something new by providing a venue for people to search for certain things based on forms a user fills out online.

One can purchases insurance, real estate, home improvement and other items by providing information relevant to your searches and then they'll come back with results. In the real estate market for example, choose your city, compare neighborhood profiles, look at crime rates and cost of living.

According to Silicon beat, Reply has picked up $17 million in venture capital from BA Venture Partners. The business is designed with both consumers and businesses in mind as they user their search system to help hook up buyers and sellers for various good and services.

The Silicon Beat Story also picked up an article from VentureWire saying:

People shopping for cars, homes or insurance go to reply.com, fill out forms, and then later get contacted via phone or e-mail by one of Reply's more than 13,000 customers. Reply makes money each time a customer finds a business through the Reply portal. The Internet users shopping for homes and cars are not charged anything. The company's sales were about $20 million in 2004, and have grown at around 50% per year in each of the past three years...

Overall, it looks like a good project. Reply is acting as matchmaker of sorts and it looks like BA Ventures is betting on a very good match.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.