Re: AltaVista Testing Paid Search Results

From: David Yancey <dyancey_at_intergen.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 09:30:43 -0500 (CDT)

Richard may be correct in suggesting that a wholesale move
to paid search engine listings a la goto.com by Alta Vista
and the other "traditional" engines would mean tough
sledding for the search placement and optimizer services.
But, assuming the goto model is more or less adhered to,
these folks will then concentrate on the "free" positions
[which follow the paid ones] which are generated by a
background engine.

This change would be even more of a problem for us
publishers, especially those who have little budget for
securing search placement. It would be a real disaster for
the non-commercial and educational sites, and for the many
thousands of useful personal pages maintained as a labor of
love by committed webbies. Faced with the increasing
commercialization of the "engines" and directories, the
search-experts could well find their services in even
greater demand! We, for example, have already developed
several techniques for optimizing goto.com positioning, and
I'm sure other readers of this list must be working the same
problem.

But as seemingly restrictive as this idea of paid listings
is, it is probably "fair" in the laissez faire world of the
net for the more popular and hence commercially successful
sites to "earn" the top listing spots. The question is not
whether such listings are threatening or "fair", but what
will be the consequences should the goto.com model prevail
in the next iteration of the web.

The real problem with such a change is of course for the
consumer, already frustrated in the attempt to find web
pages and resources, who would now be confronted with a
prevalence of paid and not necessarily useful or even
relevant listings, on top of the old mess of often
completely useless or uninteresting search results. Using a
search engine would be like going to a public library and
having to wade through the yellow pages before being allowed
access to the card catalogue, which has meanwhile been
stuffed by the contents of the waste basket.

I suggest that the likely result, sooner or later, would be
the development of an entirely new generation of search
tools. These would relegate paid listings to their fully
accessible but proper place, while offering the consumer
and, likely separately, the professional an appropriate,
high relevance level, well-maintained set of listings. These
would not rely mainly on the *other* kind of listings
popularity contest, namely the fallacious assumptions
implicit in google, et al, but on a new way of indexing
relevance, coupled with a strong component of human
oversight and a major commitment to continuing follow-up.
This sort of responsive, user-supportive tool might well not
need to be "free", or [solely] advertising-supported,
especially if it effectively addresses the many frustrations
in today's search tools.

In time, we can anticipate that the user will therefore have
a choice of search tools, from the next generation
technology outlined above to the fully commercialized
"yellow pages" model, to the hybrids like goto.com, to the
older bot-driven engines and the early directories like
Yahoo.

What looks like a major threat to the search optimizers and
placement services could therefore become a whole new set of
advisory and expertise services opportunities. Not to
mention a fantastic window for those clever enough to solve
the "search" problem all over again.



David Yancey, Managing Director, Intergen Associates
Internet Business Planning, Development & Management
"If you want an Internet presence, create a website; if you
want an Internet *business*, create an Internet Business Plan."
mailto:dyancey_at_intergen.co.uk or see us at
http://www.web-base.com or call our Japan office:
81-42-943-2637


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Received on Fri Apr 16 1999 - 10:40:56 CDT