Clicker, the site that bills itself as the TV guide for Internet content, has been acquired by CBS Interactive. Clicker’s co-founder and CEO Jim Lanzone has also been named the new president of CBS Interactive.

Jim Lanzone, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Clicker Media Inc., has been named President of CBS Interactive, it was announced today by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation.  In this role, Lanzone will oversee all of CBS Interactive’s operations worldwide.

In the past 15 months, the company also has released apps for theiPhone, iPad, Android, Boxee, Google TV and the web. In December, the site introduced personalized recommendations and tight integration with Facebook.

"In just over a year, Jim has created one of the leading navigation and discovery tools for video programming on the Internet," added Moonves.  "Clicker’s products and proprietary technologies add firepower to our existing portfolio of entertainment properties, and if we can help grow Clicker to its full potential in the years ahead, the strategic value could be tremendous."

"This is such an incredible opportunity," said Lanzone.  "Leslie and the CBS Interactive team have created an unrivaled arsenal of Internet properties – properties that have unlimited potential for expansion.  I look forward to beginning my new role and working with the team to help lead CBS into the future of online information and entertainment."

As president of CBS Interactive, Lanzone will oversee CBS’s web properties, including CNET, CBS.com, TV.com, CBSSports.com, CBSNews.com, Gamespot.com and more.

“We’ll figure it out as we go along,” Lanzone said.

Launched in November 2009, Clicker is the first comprehensive and structured guide to legal broadcast programming on the Web, indexing more than 1 million online TV shows, movies and videos, from free and paid services alike.  Clicker’s proprietary recommendation engine, Clicker Predict, and its social integration with Facebook, bring its 2.5 million monthly users an instantly personalized guide to what’s worth watching online.  Clicker was recently named one of the Top 100 Sites of 2010 byPC Magazine, "Top 10 Companies to Watch" in 2011 by Mashable and the #1 technology development in television for 2010 by the Writer’s Guild of America.  

Prior to his work at Clicker, Lanzone was the former CEO of Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves), a top 10 global Web property acquired by IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI) in 2005.  From 2001 to 2008, Lanzone held various executive roles at Ask ranging from SVP of Product Management, to General Manager of Ask Jeeves U.S., and finally CEO.  He is considered to be one of the executives most responsible for turning around Ask Jeeves prior to its sale to IAC, and establishing Ask as an innovation leader.  After leaving Ask, Lanzone joined Redpoint Ventures as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and raised $8 million to develop Clicker in October 2008.  Jim was recently named one of Forbes Magazine’s "Names You Need to Know in 2011."  Lanzone holds a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D./M.B.A. from Emory University.

If CBS Interactive can successfully fuse the community and delivery engine of TV.com with the recommendation engine, interface and usability of Clicker, the company could have a very compelling web video destination product. We would love to see the greater Clicker vision expand to helping get more CBS content on more types of connected devices.