Deloitte, which ranks these every year (disclaimer: Deloitte recently became a sponsor of socalTECH, though that has no influence in our coverage), uses the five year revenue numbers of companies to create their listing. Aside from ReachLocal, I see The Search Agency (SEO services, #83), Hydra (Internet ads, 87), Gorilla Nation at 243, and Oversee.net at 326. Perusing the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list for this year — the ranking of the fastest growing companies in North America , based on the last five years of revenue–it’s quite surprising to note the sheer number of Southern California firms listed.

Travel search site LowFares.com , which is owned by Oversee.net, is reporting that it has seen a jump in visitors to the site of 73 percent since the beginning of the year. The firm told socalTECH that the boost came both because it has been more aggressive in search engine marketing, and a new travel deals newsletter which has driven customers to return to the site. LowFares said the search engine marketing efforts were the result of additional advertiser relationships the firm has secured in recent months. LowFares.com is managed by Greg Samson; Oversee acquired LowFares.com

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net is not immune to the stormy economy, and told socalTECH Thursday that is cutting 18 percent of the firm's workforce, or a total of 38 people, including some managers. The firm said it made the moves, because it expects a "very difficult economic environment" in 2009. Jeff Kupietzky, the firm's President, said that the firm will be focusing in on its domain name monetization, domain name aftermarket, registrar, and travel businesses.