ONLINE-ADS>> Search Engine Panel at _at_d.Tech.Chicago

richard_at_tenagra.com
Tue, 12 May 1998 16:13:53 -0500 (CDT)

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Hey all,

As many of you know, there was a panel discussion at _at_d.Tech.Chicago of the
CEOs of the major search engines - Excite, Lycos, Altavista, Yahoo!,
Infoseek and HotBot.

I did a small write-up of it as part of my first report. You can read it at:

http://www.o-a.com/adtech.Chicago/adtechChig--floor1.html

I was planning to do a more in-depth report of what was said. But when I
listened again to the session on cassette tape, I realized none of them
really said anything. Oh sure, they yapped about being "portal" sites and
the importance of serving the end-user. But Chuck Martin, who did an
otherwise great job of moderating the panel, never asked the really tough
question - the question I wanted to ask, but was unable to because we ran
out of time.

That question is this:

How can their individual search technologies possibly survive? On one end
you have Altavista, whose technology is quite scalable but, unless you are
an expert in boolean logic, produces thousands of irrelevant results. And
on the other end you have Yahoo!, whose human reviewed system produces more
relevant results, but it cannot possibly scale. As of right now, Yahoo is
reportedly behind several weeks in cataloging sites that have been
submitted. Imagine what it will be like when the Web is twice as big.

Moreover, how can banner advertising support either system? If you can't
help people find things, no one will use your service and your page
impressions drop. If you need to add editorial staff to make sure users get
good search results, you can't support these people by selling banners at 5
cents a pop.

Any opinions on how these guys will ever make sustainable revenue through
advertising? Does Goto.com have the right answer - paid listings?

richard

--------------------------------------------------------
richard hoy
moderator, online advertising discussion list
vice president, marketing and client promotions
the tenagra corporation
http://www.tenagra.com/
p: 281.480.6300 | f: 281.480.7715 | e: rhoy_at_tenagra.com
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