Re: UKNM: Bad search engines

[Russell Findlay]

I guess charging for entry has something to do with a long term ambition to

make money.  I guess you may wish to get listed under other keywords

(Internet Radio, Radio etc) and with a compelling offer which can generate

cash you might be prepared to pay for the benefit.  Soundbreak.com is

willing to pay for the privelege in the US.


I am a firm believer in the bid for search engines as it creates a more

efficient market for advertising on keyword searches as it adds a much

needed element of price flexibility to the online advertising market.


Instead of seeing one advertiser (in the case of keyword sponsored banners)

or a small number in the case of other tools such as lycos' or Direct Hit in

the US).  Anyone who is willing to pay sets their own price.  This cuts out

the need for portals to consider the value of different keywords and adjust

advertising prices accordingly.  This has to be inefficient, since it is

unlikely that yahoo knows the value of all different keyword searches, but

those involved know the value to them.  Many portals have fixed rates across

all words, which is blatantly inefficient as it assumes that each has the

same value:  I would argue that mortgages has a higher value than

toothpaste - and this I imagine is borne out in goto.com (The mother of all

bid for search engines).


For the consumer it means that they get to commercial sites first, which

some may see as good and some as bad.  Paid for listings sites thus cater

for those customers who see benefits from listing highly commercial sites

first. This market segment is large enough in the US to support goto.com and

I believe it will be significant in the UK.


An example would be search engines which are not commercially driven tend to

bring up countless personal (and often uninteresting sites with keyword

searches.  These customers would rather not be inundated with pages about

Johnny moving his personal homepage, when what they want is a firm to help

them move home - on goto.com, it is more likely that searching for moving

home will find a property website, since it is in their interests to bid for

this as it will attract the righ kind of customer, whereas Johnny won't pay.


----- Original Message -----

From: <

Speechradaol [dot] com

>

To: <

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

>

Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 5:03 PM

Subject: Re: UKNM: Bad search engines



>

In a message dated 27/07/00 15:25:35 GMT Daylight Time, jbeggsgodado [dot] com

> writes:

>

> << It seems you have to have a bad search engine to get people talking

about

>  you!

>

>  At www.godado.co.uk we rarely get any complaints- and therefore never get

>  mentioned on this forum >>

>

> OK, you're useless.  Why charge people for entry? Google (a complete

mystery

> to me how they make money) gives me top 3 placements if I type speechradio

> and as far as I can recall I've never paid anyone a penny for a listing.

>

> As far as bidding for keywords ..... don't even understand what you're

> talking about.

>

> Only trying to be helpful by being the first to slag you off.

>

> Michael Trott

> Operations Director

> Speechradio.com Ltd. - The Internet's Leading Audio Content Provider

> Visit Internet Radio at www.studentradio.co.uk, www.arenaradio.co.uk,

> www.radiohtml.com

> Free radio for your website from http://www.speechradio.com



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