[thelist] should we just give up and buy the darn keywords/ra nkings?

[Green, Janet]

Obviously this is a sad, sad thing for information-rich, money-poor websites
- the fact that a company PAYS to have its site listed in search results is
in no way a reflection on the quality of the site itself (whether it
contains any actual information)... and those sites that cannot afford to
pay for SE results will likely see far less traffic if this trend continues.
It's also bad news for surfers, who may not realize that paid placement does
NOT guarantee keyword relevance, but who may tire of sifting through paid
results before they ever get to the non-paid listings. Hell, this could cast
a huge pall over the credibility of the entire internet as an information
source, if surfers find that "paid" placements aren't relevant to their
keyword search. Finally, SE's must identify paid placements as just that in
order to protect their own credibility. Bad news, bad new, bad news, IMO. 
Janet
  



-----Original Message-----
From: Fortune Elkins [mailto:fortune_elkins at summithq.com]


this article really kinda threw me into despair:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/04/technology/04GOTO.html

what do you all think??