Seeking answers to serious life issues

What: Dipiti, headquartered in Pioneer Square area of Seattle

Who: Dave Rice, 44, president and CEO

Mission: Create a search environment that provides information about serious life issues, using material on blogs and message boards in addition to that on standard Web sites.

Big four: Dipiti concentrates on four areas: health, legal, money and pet care. "These are the topics where users face the biggest challenge in finding trusted results," Rice said.

Just like talking: Dipiti says it uses a more conversational language approach for searches, responding to simple terms such as "cracked tooth." Said Rice, "People don't need to type in specific technical terms in order to get results."

Financials: The venture-financed company, not yet profitable, expects to generate most of its revenue from contextual advertising, which Rice said will better match what users are seeking than what is online. Some special development deals that would place a Dipiti search window on a commercial site are also in the works.

Rank professionals: The company does not expect to earn revenue from search placement as such. Instead, it vets sites and positions those it deems most useful in a prominent position. "While we assess each site, we will examine its privacy policy." Rice said. "Our customers know these sites are safe, and they won't end up on a click farm."

Employees: Seven full time, four contractors and a range of other strategic talent.

No "doo-dah": The company's name is short for serendipity: "We want each search experience to provide the user with exactly what they are looking for, with a sense of surprise that they were able to find it," Rice said.

Top performer: "A lot of times, the most useful site to answer a certain question will be down on Page 58, where it won't be found," Rice said. "We will give the user access to the information they need without having to dig that deeply."

— Charles Bermant