Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Search engines are dying

BULMASH.COM Sales (sales_at_bulmash.com)
Fri, 21 Nov 1997 14:14:22 -0800

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claud_at_silcom.com (Claudia Bruemmer) wrote:
[snip]
> I understand the need for families to protect children from
> objectionable material on the Internet, but I wonder (1) what
> qualifies family.netshepherd to judge what's appropriate for most
> families and (2) what are the objectives of this organization. I
> understand Net Shepherd does not assign ratings; rather, a Rating
> Community judges what's inappropriate and/or objectionable. However,
> there is no description of the rating community or its qualifications
> to make such judgments other than to say this group reviews the sites
> and assigns ratings according to their subjective impression. It is
> further asserted the collaborative rating effort reflects the opinions
> of "the Internet user community." hmmmm.... Does that include me? A
> rather broad assumption I'd say.

<<We believe that in time as more on-line communities create filtered
search <<indexes that users will have a better choice and search
within core <<competencies.

>But will this truly serve the user better? What if some of those
>subjective impressions filter out information to fulfill a particular
>agenda that the user doesn't subscribe to? IMO, I think it's a big
>mistake if web searches are headed this way.
[snip]

I think you're being a bit alarmist here. You're taking this as if
using family.netshepherd is an obligation instead of a choice. Who are
the networks to decide what TV programming is appropriate for us? Who
are the news organizations to decide which information we should know?
And, while we're at it, many of those news organizations have liberal
or conservative agendas, obviated by the slants they put on stories
and the stories they choose.

Why doesn't the National Enquirer run crop reports? Why doesn't the
Wall Street Journal have a Sunday comics section? Why doesn't the
Discovery Channel run sitcoms? The answer is specialization. They
each orient themselves toward a certain type of consumer and provide
what they believe will meet their wants or needs. And as more
bandwidth becomes available and we can accomodate more channels, more
cable networks pop up to fill the niches. If one isn't doing it for
you, just flip the channel through that 200-choice dial and you'll
eventually find one that will.

See, if family.netshepherd isn't meeting your needs... GO ELSEWHERE.
It's that simple. There's no law making you use them or ever visit
their site. No intelligent surfer is going to think they're the only
index, but those with families and a certain mindset might agree with
their choices and find them useful.

You brought up a whole bunch of questions except the most important
one... what the heck does it matter if their policies or choices don't
serve you? They are a specialized service and if you don't like them,
there's a huge market of competitors to choose from. Perhaps it might
be in their self interest to better detail their policies and
procedures so people can better evaluate them. But mainly they'll
evaluate them based on the links, and if they're not getting the
results they want, they'll go somewhere else.

-Greg

--

--------------------------------------------------------------
|Q: How do you make the hiccups go away?                     |
|A: Tell them you love them.                                 |
--------------------------------------------------------------
|Greg Bulmash               Author/Editor - The WASHED-UPdate|
|greg_at_bulmash.com               http://www.bulmash.com/washed|
--------------------------------------------------------------
|This Week: DYNASTY                   Next Week: MORE DYNASTY|
--------------------------------------------------------------


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