Re: AltaVista Testing Paid Search

From: Glenn Sobel <YourWebURL_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 09:33:27 -0500 (CDT)

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While I am certainly not an expert in regard to advertising
I have nevertheless found this thread very interesting.
With all the argument about the value of a high ranking and
the cost per click, etc., I thought I would add my 2 cents
from the point of view of a lawyer and a consumer (for more
years than I would like to admit ;-).

The search engines seem to have become very adept at placing
banners on the search pages that coincide with the subject
of the search. It seems to me that this is a legitimate
form of paying for recognition based on a search request.
If the SE's desire to maintain themselves as an ethical, not
to mention useful, business then they should know that the
searchers are actually their customers. As customers, we
expect to get a search result that is consistant with the
intent of the request, which is to find the best and most
relevant sites.

Unless the SE's want to rename themselves and become a
yellow pages that lists companies who are willing to pay
their fee, it is my position that using any criteria for
ranking that is not based on relevance and quality is a
fraud on their customers. They should be forced to label
all paid sites as advertisements to avoid liability for
misrepresentation.

Please don't misunderstand me, I am very pro business. But
that does not mean that any action is defensible no matter
how deceptive. Sending searchers to sites that do not
deserve their ranking is equivalent to stealing time from
the searcher, and any business person knows that is
something none of us can afford to waste. So I hope that
this experiment will end up where it belongs, in the "bad
idea file".

I would be very interested in reading any opposing opinions.
Thanks for all the great info.

Glenn Sobel, J.D.
Consulting, tools and resources to help business sites be
more profitable.
www.DomainNameAdvisor.com

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Received on Tue May 11 1999 - 10:49:56 CDT