Grumpus - 11:42 am on Oct 23, 2002 (gmt 0)

There's one key thing to keep in mind here. Your rankings in INK can be optimized just as with any other spider. Be relevant and it'll show higher. Have link popularity and it'll show higher. Etc. Etc.

Because it's unlawful for INK to affect WHERE Amazon shows up in the SERPS, it'll still be possible to come in ahead of them, just as we do now (sometimes) in Google. (And if that's not the case, watch for the E-Bay's and CDNow's to start a little clamor).

What I think is most interesting about the article is the fact that Amazon's feeding INK the data rather than a spider hitting each page. So much for needing good navigation. I'd love to be able to dump a URL, description of my design, and a batch of keywords to the search enginges.

In the end, though, Amazon is still paying for inclusion, not paying for top, or any other ranked placement. They're just paying to get in there.

I'm regularly ranking higher than Amazon for dozens of products for which they have placement in Google now (not counting the hundreds where Amazon didn't get that product into the index). Sure, there are literally thousands upon thousands more where Amazon is ahead of me, but on many of those, I'm creeping up each month, as well. The giants are big, and it takes time to work out, but a solo computer geek such as myself can always get better placement with work and time. I have even managed to sneak ahead of Amazon on many MSN listings. (Money helps, but it's not always necessary - I've paid less than $50 on promotions this year).

It's an interesting article and lets me know I've got a little work to do this Christmas to keep my MSN results fresh and broad. Thanks for the tip, CuriousWeb!

G.