Re: Search engine promotions

From: Michael Martinez <Michael_at_xenite.org>
Date: Mon 05 Mar 2001 10:59:43 -0600

JOHN GASKILL <gm_at_info-central-usa.com> WROTE:

>Paid search engines must work, up to a point, or formerly
>unpaid search engines would not be adopting the model,
>and many advertisers would not being paying for a higher
>ranking, repetitively.

Unfortunately, that turns out not to be the case. Goto.Com
is making the most money off paid submisions right now and
they are projecting huge losses for 2001. None of the
other paid submission services are making a profit off
their paid submissions, and none of them are projecting any
profits any time soon.

These are very shaky business models and most likely only
a handful of search services will be able to make either
model (pay-per-click or pay-per-listing) work. And that
assumes ANYONE can make one of these models work.

Paid listings don't come with any guarantee of relevance
to the surfer. Even though the search service may have
criteria for determining whether submissions are acceptable,
those criteria don't necessarily agree with what the surfers'
criteria are.

Take Looksmart, for example. They are unleashing tons of
Amazon listings on their service as part of their newest
revenue plan. Last time I checked, Amazon was boasting
it had something like 500,000 associates. Many of those
associates are already listed in Looksmart. People pick
up pretty quickly that they can buy from Amazon through a
gazillion Web sites. Those Web sites have content that Amazon
doesn't offer.

Take a look at how Looksmart has diluted the value of its
directory with this search on "J.R.R. Tolkien":
http://www.looksmart.com/r_search?look=&pin=010221x2db6b2097b5eac341b1&key=j.r.r.+tolkien

You get featured sponsors, then three directory topics,
then two Amazon listings as "Reviewed Web sites". And
the description for the first Amazon listing mis-spells
Tolkien's name as T-O-L-K-E-I-N (a commmon mis-spelling,
but clearly the review process is not what it should be).

If you click on the first directory topic, you get a pretty
useless intermediate page with sub-topic (sub-category)
listings and more links offering to sell you stuff:
http://www.looksmart.com/eus1/eus302562/eus317836/eus317911/eus53869/eus169258/eus169272/eus275641/eus972102/eus276684/r?l&

Anyone who has studied basic Web design and usability
knows that making surfers click on link after link to get to
what they want is going to drive people away. Burying the
real content deep down in the page, and mixing in
advertisements for Amazon products will be perceived as
a deceptive practice by many people.

If paid content were really a big money maker, it would
be making big money. But it's not.

Why have so many search services jumped on the idea? Because
they are desperate for revenues. You can't blame them for
wanting to try something. But this isn't the answer. At
least, if the search service industry as it is composed
today is to survive, these companies are going to have to
come up with other revenue streams. Otherwise, there will
eventually be a huge shakeout.

Science Fiction and Fantasy info_at_xenite.org
 Visualizing Middle-earth, a book for all Tolkien fans
     http://www.xenite.org/



Received on Mon Mar 05 2001 - 10:59:43 CST