Re: AltaVista Testing Paid Search Results

From: Jim Redfield <jimredfield_at_chaseoliver.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 14:51:24 -0500 (CDT)

I doubt that all this churning about what might be the best.
fairest, and most appropriate way for engines and
directories to rank sites is ever going to die down to some
common set of 'rules of the road.'

Engines and directories will always strive to find points of
difference that set them apart from their competition, site
optimization companies will always strive to find ways to
capitalize on engine particulars to garner higher rankings
for their clients, and there will always be rich and
aggressive clients ready and willing to spend serious money
to drive the whole process forward by means fair and foul.

I predict that a new kind of software will shortly arrive on
the scene to cut to the heart of the matter: This software
will run on the end user's computer and its function will be
to capture the top URLs delivered by selected engines in
response to the user's key word search. The software will
then visit each of the sites, rank them with respect to
their 'real' relevance to the user's key word using its own
algorithms, and display the best results. This software will
be intelligent in the sense that it will, over time, learn
what works for the user and what doesn't, refining its
methodology appropriately (whatever that means), and it will
also be highly configurable by the user to further improve
its performance.

When this software hits the streets, irrelevant URLs will
never get to the user's desk regardless of
bought-and-paid-for positions, and all the current churning
about engine ranking proprieties will become irrelevant. The
site positioning and search engine industries will then
refocus on their original roles -- helping companies tweak
their sites to more accurately reflect their real content,
and reflecting that content in no-nonsense engine rankings,
respectively.

Just one man's opinion, but I think this kind of software
will be very successful simply because it puts the searching
activity in the only place where it can realistically be
expected to address, first and foremost, the searcher's
interests. Heck, I think it will be the next Visicalc.

Jim Redfield
Chase Oliver P.O.P. Display Consultants
jimredfield_at_chaseoliver.com
http://www.chaseoliver.com


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Received on Wed Apr 21 1999 - 15:48:34 CDT