Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Search engines dying?

Ray Taylor (taylor_at_bizbiz.com)
Tue, 11 Nov 1997 21:18:26 +0000

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What was it that Mark Twain said about premature obituaries?

I don't think search engines are dead but it sure is time that their
owners invested some time, effort and money in them. In particular:

1. Cleaning up the content - Alta Vista still lists a whole lot of junk
from '95, presumably because they get the hardware for free
2. Customer service - I spent weeks trying to buy some ads from
Infoseek a while back then gave up
3. Creating a meaningful user interface - at the moment they are all
trying to compete with the newspapers for original content when what
they should be doing is adding value to the job of finding whatís
already out there

Perhaps it's also time to say goodbye to the free lunch. I would happily
pay a subscription fee for the right to have sites listed on a decent
index, provided I got good service in return, a guaranteed place in
appropriate sections and sub-sections for my clients, and a 24-hour
turnaround. And so long as the site owner spent some money on promoting
the site via print and broadcast media.

But since I have to work hard to get any kind of return for my expensive
banner campaigns, I think the chances of getting a good indexing service
for a reasonable subscription are pretty remote.

Search engines are not dead itís just that their owners are badly in
need of a slap around the face.

Ray Taylor
New Media Communications, London
http://www.bizbiz.com
+44 181 639 0015

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