jvvjen - 1:00 pm on Aug 17, 2001 (gmt 0)

I don't know if anyone is following this post anymore, but I wanted to share a thought.

This Commercial Alert group is concerned about GoTo and its partners from the consumer perspective. As an advertiser, I am concerned about GoTo and the PPC/Bid for Placement combination. If you have a very specific (niche) market with keywords like the ones below:

"searchengine optimization" ($4.31)
"online casino" ($5.10)
"data recovery" ($7.75)
"projector rental" ($15.61)
(I thought about calling and telling the people in the first place position that I won't click their link for $10.)

the 'bidding wars' get simply out of hand. And with the addition of all the partners to the GoTo network, it becomes even more important to have a presence in one of the top three spots.

Bids are going to get higher for everyone, and the pervasiveness of GoTo is going to force all of us to pay-to-play.

I personally don't think that consumers care about paid listings as long as they are relevant. However, if I were trying to find unbiased research and I used GoTo... I might get a little tired of getting a sales pitch... but it's just like spam, I wouldn't click it.