Forum Moderators: phranque
General Questions:
1. Are we becoming too dependant on Google and Y! for traffic?
2. Is this good for us and or the Web?
3. If most of the other SE's cannot or will not try to compete what should we do?
(Nothing against Google. Don't get me wrong, I love Google. I just get nervous when I think of it being the /only/ search engine.)
If google becomes the be all and end all of search engines, a lot of people will start screaming "MICRO$OFT, MICRO$OFT" or something like that. But remember where google was 2 years ago. It was a lot of PR from people like us and the fact that they got the Yahoo! deal that gave them notoriety. Things can change, of course, I've already changed my home page from google to the FAST advanced search. And I've told all of my clients to do the same. (And I've told them to tell everybody else they know that there is an alternative out there also.)
Not that I don't like google, but until it fixes whatever is going wrong, I will not promote it like I did before.
It will stay that way until google gives me at least one green pixel on its toolbar. ;) A little competition is good for everybody, I think.
Fast rides along with Google.
I choose to include or ignore based upon keyword search results:
Yahoo Directory
Looksmart Directory
As one Database, Listings, Directories prominence changes so
does my amount of effort.
As new and/or promising Databases, Listings, or Directories surface they are put into the mix for testing.
Always an ongoing effort.
That was until the last 24hours. Right now - this moment, I've not been so optimistic about the future of se's in several years. Let's look at some of the things that are coming to light:
- Divine buys NorthernLight [webmasterworld.com].
- Rumors persist that NL will be moved to the premier search provider on Yahoo [webmasterworld.com]. (unconfirmed and denied by parties).
- IBM says they have "something better than search" that will be launched this month [webmasterworld.com].
- Rumors that three more new search engines are in the works. One at a university, one from a major computer manufactuer, and the resurection of Excite.
- SmartTag wars heat up.(1 [webmasterworld.com])(2 [webmasterworld.com])
- I just read a study that basically says users are getting ppc fatigue at search engines.
- AllTheWeb just continues to plod along gaining the big MO in small quantities (sooner or later, those quantities add up).
Combine those simple facts, and I have hope that we will look back on 2002 as the year that, the search engine wars are back!
FORTUNATELLY the same months i got this pr 0 problem on all my sites my listing in AV reaperaed after more than YEAR and msn and few others started bringing me little hits.
I even got few hits from webcrawler few days ago!
if things dont come "back to normal" in 2 updates i will definitelly look on other engines than google.
I am not in Yahoo.
2. No. It is bad. Lots of competition in a wide field is good.
3. Diversify, but get as much out of what traffic you do get while you can. Capture EVERY interested, qualified email address possible for followup. Keep 'em coming back with good content and offers.
...not to veer too much off topic for this thread, but I would change the topic to "Are we overdependant on Search Engines."
Yes, the SE landscape continues to change, and as the SE's work toward profitability, we are going to see more and more change. I fully expect that SEO (in its "pure" form )will have smaller and smaller effect as the worm turns. Time to diversify, if you have the skills.
My advice - hit 'em hard and often, with good content, and build some branding while you can.
The capitalist machine is at work, on the web.
Can't be that bad as I have always got some traffic "trickling" in.
LOL. Sadly, I'm probably getting as much, if not more, out of the Excite domain via Overture. I have no bids, it's all just obscure stuff from Ink backfill. Frankly, I don't want the old Excite back.
Thinking: Now if Excite started porting Teoma results this could get interesting.
> 3. Start a new SE - any takers.
Sigh. I have seriously thought about this. I suppose the thought would be a conceit on my part. Anyway it is beyond my skill and finances. Could a SE be created using an Open Source model? Some sort of real SE and not a directory like ODP.
As for the rumored new SE's that are in the works - I am looking forward to that, very much.
Google brought me back in November, only to boot me again in December.
All this time, my site revenues grew no matter what happened with Google traffic. From a revenue point of view, it's as if Google traffic was never more than a mirage. Now I'm wondering if a lot of that Google traffic was just other webmasters or bots of some sort looking through the Google SERPS for analysis of high ranking pages or looking for link partners.
Six months after the first big Google boot, I have record search engine traffic and record site revenues, no thanks to Google.
If the smoke and haze of Google traffic is cleared from your stats, you can see the other search engines and you may be pleasantly surprised at what you find, perhaps not in raw numbers but in commercial quality.
