Re: AltaVista Testing Paid Search Results

From: Bob Schmidt <schmidt_at_magicnet.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 14:51:43 -0500 (CDT)

I'm not much bothered by AV's try at further slicing and
dicing the search results screen real estate. Egad, aren't
they the last one to try this?

Since they are (apparently) requiring relevance in the
purchased links, from a user standpoint, it may actually
improve the relevance of their search results. For the past
year, I have become increasingly frustrated by the random
rotation of link relevance on AV and routinely slog through
all 20 pages of results when doing any serious net research
-- and even then can't find what I'm looking for without
rewriting the search terms over and over. Yet I can go to
Infoseek or Excite and usually find what I want on the first
page or two.

>From an advertising standpoint, I also really like
Doubleclick's willingness to try some new things. I've
gotten great results from their on-again, off-again direct
program and always listen to my rep's explanation of their
new programs. They don't meet my expectation level in this
area, of course, which is some really great new thing every
week, but I'm willing to give them credit whenever they do.
Could they do a better job? Paid bullseye text links on
Lycos come to mind here -- they serve the same purpose as
AV's paid links and they look good to the user.

Whether the auctioned link is just a flame that will burn
itself out or a viable long term ad product I guess remains
to be seen based on performance. The fact that it is new
puts the advantage probably to AV. Who knows how much one of
these links is really worth, even on a per click basis? That
puts the burden on the bidder, not the ad medium and makes a
market out of all those who are willing to spend a few bucks
to find out.

The rest of the page is still fair game for queue jumping
and should have absolutely no effect on optimizers -- most
of whom gave up on AV a long time ago.



Bob Schmidt
www.provider.com
Author of The Geek's Guide to Internet Business Success
Published by John Wiley & Sons ISBN 0471288381
The First Book to Address the Business Side of the Web Design Business
http://www.provider.com/geeksguide


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Received on Wed Apr 21 1999 - 15:46:44 CDT