Re: Search engine promotions

From: John Gaskill <gm_at_info-central-usa.com>
Date: Mon 12 Mar 2001 10:31:03 -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.

TO WHICH ROB FRANKEL <rob_at_frankelbiz.com> REPLIED:
>I'm gonna disagree with you here. Not because there may be
>underlying reasons for the shift, but for the rationale
>behind your point:

>I get lots of clients who have beached themselves on
>strategies based on "what the other guys are doing".
>They totally gloss over the possibility that the other
>guys were doing it wrong to begin with.

The rationale of my point had nothing to do with
"copycat" behavior. Lots of dot-coms copied each
other by losing bazillions and thinking the cure would
come after they went public. Ha ha ha ha ha...

The repeated behavior I refer to is that on the part
of advertisers re-upping their relationships with paid
search engines. They keep paying, not because
the pain feels so good, but because it works.

It reminds me of the advertising axiom,
"When you find something that works, keep
doing it until it no longer works or stops paying for
itself."

>Remember "push" technology? everyone was doing that,
>too -- for awhile.

Sorry Rob, I missed that one.

>I maintain that search engines who sell out will --
>in the long run -- lose credibility with the general
>web going public, the same way that "malls" deflated,
>giving rise to a new generation of engines that will
>herald the rebirth of legitimate content-driven
>searchers.

There are varying degrees of selling out. I think much
of what you are seeing is market testing by the search
engines, e.g., Yahoo continually states that it is
happy with the revenue it now receives from it auctions
section, in spite of a 90% decline in the number of
listings.

Assuming the managements of surviving search engines
pay attention to their new and old customer counts,
the public's reaction to paid search rankings and
the bottom line, success and failure will be
rewarded in the customary fashion.

As much as you may believe search engines should
index billions of internet documents for free, the
business model simply does not work.

My $ 0.02.

Regards all,

John

John Gaskill
gm_at_info-central-usa.com
Looking for an ad medium that's powerful, targetable,
flexible and affordable? Discover Info-Central.(sm)
http://info-central-usa.com



Received on Mon Mar 12 2001 - 10:31:03 CST