Application delivery service provider Netli Inc. Monday plans to announce NetLightning for Web Services, a service designed to improve performance and reliability of XML-based search query traffic.

Netli, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is also unveiling a service-level agreement (SLA) for delivery applications and content across its network. The SLA guarantees that a customer"s end users will be able to complete a transaction or download content using NetLightning in half the time -- a guarantee that applies regardless of the carriers used in a wide-area network connection.

LookSmart Ltd., an online media and search technology company in San Francisco, began testing the Netli service in mid-March and has been using it since late April. LookSmart has since seen a 60 percent reduction in cross-country network latency with its partners, said Michael Grubb, LookSmart"s chief technology officer. He wouldn"t discuss his monthly service costs with LookSmart, but said it has been "cost-effective."

Netli CEO Gary Messiana said services range from US$8,000 to $20,000 per month.

Netli"s monthly service distinguishes it from a number of other companies offering appliances that provide application delivery acceleration, said George Hamilton, an analyst at The Yankee Group in Boston.

Cisco Systems Inc. recently announced its Application Oriented Network, which is based partly on its acquisition of Fineground Networks, while Juniper Networks has made acquisitions of its own, Hamilton said. "Everyone"s building more intelligence into the network, and Netli is adopting a managed service model to be in line with the changes," he said.

Netli, with about 50 employees, was launched in April 2003 and has named more than 24 large companies using its services. In all, it has about 500 different applications being managed for those customers, with 1.7 billion transactions a week, Messiana said.