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

Tony Grimes algrimes at acs.ucalgary.ca
Mon Jun 4 19:20:32 CDT 2001


On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, Fortune Elkins wrote:

>
> this article really kinda threw me into despair:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/04/technology/04GOTO.html
>
> what do you all think??
>
>
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WARNING: This is a little long. 

     One good thing I can see coming out of all of this is the
development of different search engines for different purposes. For
example, Search Engine A allows sponsored links (the more you pay, the
better your ranking) and Search Engine B will submit a link for a flat
rate (say $10, which I think is a fair price for the service they provide)
and ranks their submissions objectively.
     Since it now costs money to submit a link, the owner of a website
will be selective in the SEs they submit to. Websites that sell products
online will gravitate to SE-A for the better ranking per dollar.
Information-rich websites will gravitate to SE-B because they don't have
the revenue to buy a ranking.
     Eventually, the user will be able to refine their search simply by
choosing the SE they use. For example, if a user wants to buy Starwars
merchandise (an example from the article), they will go to SE-A, but if
the user wants to know the name of the midget who played R2-D2 in the
first movie (Episode IV if you're a geek), they go to SE-B. 
     SEs will eventually market themselves to particular niches and
website owners will only submit to a SE that caters to their demographic.
Users will go to a SE that they know will give them what they want. 
They'll select the search engine according to whether they want to buy a
TV (product), find a hosting provider (service) or learn about what that
thing at the back of your throat is called (information).
     The key is that there are flat-rate sites out there to provide the
objective information searches, which is what we're all worried about. I
think most people would be willing to pay $10 to get submitted to a
popular SE considering the amount of sweat, blood and money they put into
their sites in the first place.
     As for free-submission SEs, I'm sure someone will always be there to
step up to the plate. After all, that's how Linux got started.

.tony



On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, Fortune Elkins wrote:

> 
> this article really kinda threw me into despair:
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/04/technology/04GOTO.html
> 
> what do you all think??
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------
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