Re: Search engines (was: Tracking and Looksmart)

From: Alexis D. Gutzman <alexisg_at_marketingsherpa.com>
Date: Mon 29 Jul 2002 10:43:47 -0500

Andrew Ellam wrote:

> 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,

Thanks so much for this! I haven't seen this on any of the relationship
charts, including Bruce Clay's or WebPosition's.

I wonder when this happened. I see that Inktomi isn't even listed anymore.
This is HUGE.

Regards,
Alexis
---
Alexis D. Gutzman, Managing Editor
MarketingSherpa's Knowledge Store
http://sherpastore.com <- SEO Guide now on sale!





Received on Mon Jul 29 2002 - 10:43:47 CDT