Re: Search engines (was: Tracking and Looksmart)

From: Andrew Ellam <andy.ellam_at_2-minute-website.com>
Date: Mon 29 Jul 2002 09:32:52 -0500

Hi again Alexis,

You wrote:

> Where results come from isn't splitting hairs! I think AOL only
> switched for
> paid listings (from Overture to Google). I hadn't seen anything
> about Google
> providing spidered results. There wouldn't be any revenue sharing with
> Google, as I'm sure there is with Inktomi, so I'd be surprised to see AOL
> making that decision. The chart (nice chart, BTW, I usually use the one at
> BruceClay.com or the one at WebPosition) doesn't show any change to the
> AOL/Inktomi relationship. I notice that the chart is from July 19. Since
> then, AskJeeves announced it would be taking PPC results from Google
> AdWords. Overture has got to be hurting!

Looks as though Google is taking both paid and normal results
from Google - quoting from this page:
http://search.aol.com/help/about.adp
> "Sponsored Links" are listings that have been purchased by
> companies that want to have their sites appear for specific
> search terms. These listings are administered, sorted and
> maintained by Google (AOL's search partner). [snip]
> "Matching Sites" are Web sites listed in order of relevance
> (listings with the highest relevance appear first). These
> listings are administered, sorted and maintained by Google
> (AOL's search partner). [snip] For some searches, the first
> one or two listings may come from AOL's own collection of
> matching sites.

In practise the results seem to resemble Google results, without clustering,
and with a different (and perhaps a little eccentric) method of filtering by
country. If I were AOL I'd be looking to improve the results.

(Footnote number 6 on the chart by the way - very small print :) )

Yes, presumably AOL are now paying, rather than being paid, for their
search - I wonder if it has anything to do with the FTC:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/staff/commercialalertattatch.htm
Perhaps AOL isn't happy with Inktomi's pay-for-crawling model. Still, who
knows. Could be all sorts of commercial reasons.

Good news though for those of us who can't afford PPC!

Andy.
--
Andrew Ellam, 2-Minute-Website Ltd
http://2-Minute-Website.com/





Received on Mon Jul 29 2002 - 09:32:52 CDT