Re: AltaVista Testing Paid Search Results

From: <richard_at_tenagra.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 14:52:20 -0500 (CDT)

JIM MESKAUSKAS WROTE:
>But I'm curious if anyone else
>out there is concerned that these ploys all compromise
>search engine "editorial integrity." Now, I realize they
>don't have much of that as it stands in general, but
>unsubsidized search results were always the paragon of what
>the internet and the web were supposed to provide.
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I would argue that AltaVista, and other engines that use
software for determining relevance and accept open
submissions, have zero editorial integrity to compromise.
First, they are not publications in the same way a magazine
or newspaper is a publication. There content is generated by
the public at large, with only cursory effort to ensure
quality and subject matter.

Second, they can be (and are) manipulated in a wide variety
of ways to forward someone's marketing agenda. There are
whole companies built around doing just that.

This idea that in 1999 an average user is getting objective
search results from these engines, versus, say, Sam Meddis'
reviews in USA Today, is a myth. I just read a blurb in the
May 1999 issue of Business 2.0 about a survey conducted by
Cyveillance (http://www.cyveillance.com/) that showed many
adult content providers purposely embed popular brand names
in their pages so they come up first. This is one of many
examples that are fundamental roadblocks to preventing any
spider-based engine from being objective.

Paid search engine listings at least give some normalcy back
to the task of categorizing Web sites. Though admittedly it
is not a perfect correlation, there is a strong one between
sites with money to paid for top placement and good content.

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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Received on Wed Apr 21 1999 - 15:46:43 CDT