Orbitz LLC, Business.com Inc. and AOL LLC's MapQuest have partnered with BlueTie Inc. to have their online services featured in BlueTie's Web-hosted communications applications for small and medium-size businesses.

Putting a twist on the traditional advertising model for Web-hosted software, the Orbitz, MapQuest and Business.com services will be organically embedded into BlueTie's hosted e-mail, calendaring and file sharing applications, BlueTie announced Monday.

Called Featuretisement, this inclusion of third-party online services lets BlueTie generate revenue while avoiding the display of intrusive and distracting banner ads in its Web hosted applications, said David Koretz, BlueTie's founder, president and CEO. Simultaneously, BlueTie provides what it considers valuable third-party services to its around 3.5 million end users, Koretz said.

The Orbitz integration will let users call up travel booking services from within the BlueTie applications, giving them access to Orbitz's inventory from over 400 airlines, 65,000 hotels and 13 rental car companies. The companies have a pay-per-action agreement, so BlueTie gets paid only when its users book a flight, reserve a room or rent a car via Orbitz. "We make money only when Orbitz makes money, so our goals are very aligned when it comes to user experience," he said.

Regarding Business.com, which is a search engine tailored for business information, a search box has been included in the BlueTie user interface, where the search results and accompanying text ads are also subsequently displayed. BlueTie users can also trigger a search by highlighting text and clicking on it. The companies will split revenue whenever a BlueTie user clicks on a Business.com sponsored link.

With MapQuest, users can click on an address in their BlueTie address book and generate a map and driving directions. MapQuest and BlueTie haven't yet settled on a monetization agreement, but it will likely be of the pay-per-action type, a BlueTie spokesman said.

BlueTie has similar partnerships as these three with another nine providers that it will formally announce when their integration is ready, Koretz said. One partnership is with J2 Global Communications Inc.s eFax Internet fax service. BlueTie offers a free version of its application suite, as well as a fee-based version with more capacity and features for US$4.99 per user per month.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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