Forum Moderators: anallawalla & bakedjake
Information architecting result sets that can favor and appease paid display advertisers/category-driven ad placements -with the need to serve algoryhmic based results that focus more on local query answers* (proximity, relevancy, rating).
this traditional search problem is compounded in local environments, and further compounded in local segments such as mobile.
those who run the sales dpts of the leading iyps are concerned. they fear pure algo-driven search, while knowing they have to embrace it to acquire and keep the eyeballs.
how can you sell ads that have unpredictable display? how can you explain an algo to an SME? relevancy hurts large- fixed buys. volume and return become unpredictable.
at the same time... iyps fear that they do not have the content to feed pure search. they fear their rigid applications and lack of technical compentencies as it relates to user generated content and rich features and function sets.
this battle is quietly raging.
pure search versus category driven adverisements.
relevancy vs. the dollar in the bowels of local search.
ads versus answers.
OTOH, if everyone chases or tries to emulate the leaders the current crop of dominant players I suspect they will have their lunch eaten.
There's only so many "popular models" to go around, so now we have a new box to think in. Not the best of ideas.
I see gold in good old clean data. I see SMEs learning, in the next several years, the benefits of signing up for free basic listings everywhere they can. After that, there will be a certain "follow the herd" mentality.
In the end it will get down to the data + something else that appeals to the market segment. Legal search? Clean data, articles, community, interesting writers, etc. Retail search? Is that B2B or B2C?
Lots of room for a variety of models with a focus that is unique.
Maybe the big players, instead of looking to assert their existing monopoly (of sorts), need to think about disintegrating to survive. One company dissolves to give rise to 50 companies, with a parent that knows enough how healthy children are raised, so to speak.
Sometimes the parents need to learn something from the children. In other words, sometimes a business (model) needs to learn how business itself is evolving - in order to survive. The centralization of think and the centralization of control/art of architecture/etc will be the death of the existing crop, unless they let go.
It's stunning that so much money has so little possibility associated with it. With 1/10 of their available funds there's likely dozens of WebmasterWorld members who would be able to 1) put them out of business, permanently; and, 2) create viable business model that would be able to evolve consistent with new business forces.
I believe this especially applies to the YP/directory industry.
