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Please say it ain't so!!! If so, there goes about 16 or 17% of my referrals.
Big time bummer! Well I guess my friend can save her money afterall. I was going to submit her site to LookSmart on Tuesday. Guess there's not much point now!
i can email you a screenshot if you'd like
eg
[homeadvisor.msn.com...]
[yellowpages.msn.com...]
>About Featured Sites
Featured Sites are links that MSN Search editors believe are likely to be particularly relevant and useful, chosen from sites published by MSN affiliates, partners, sponsors, and advertisers, as well as other sites proven to be especially popular among our users. ... blah blah blah<
From the search engine awards post:
>I also think MSN is going to rally and surprise a lot of us.<
Hadn't dreamt it would happen so soon ... nor in this way!
#1 - Overture's coming to MSN
#2 - MSN is still testing their users' tolerance for dirty SERPs
#3 - Whenever Bill needs a little extra pocketchange, he flips the switch to 'beta' and fires up Overture for a few billion clicks
What I really don't understand is why all these SE's are buying into the Overture thing? Obviously its money ... but I just don't get it. Its as though they are all ganging up (at once) against Google and Fast and what is left of the free internet. I guess the question is ... how many overture clones will it take to:
a) put Google and Fast under by making Joe average believe that their results are the only true results ...
b) piss off the public so badly that they give up using the net...
c) Make all of them look like fools for buying into the whole Overture thing to begin with ...
d) Make Google and Fast (and a handful of newbies) the only engines left standing in 6 months time, after all the fallout from this mess is exposed to be what it is ... a poor and obvious attempt to take over the internet.
My site is nonprofit, and there's this non-trademarked keyword in the title that I've been using for 12 years. Two commercial sites and one shareware site use the same keyword; these sites are completely different in content.
The two commercial sites show up in front of mine on MSN.
All sites have the keyword in the title, and one of the commercial sites and my mirror site have it in the domain also.
Looking at Google, I'm way ahead of those little commercial sites. One of the commercial sites has a PageRank of 5 with 42 inbound links.
My main site has a PR of 7 with nearly 600 inbound, offsite links. My mirror site with the name in the domain has a PR of 6, with maybe 120 inbound links. These are "real" links, not generated by anything I did.
The second commercial site has a PR of 2 with zero inbound links in Google.
Both commercial sites show up ahead of mine in a MSN search. The PR of 2 site shows up right on top.
What's the story on MSN's pay to play for their SERPs? I wasn't aware that they were greedy; I thought their engine was merely incompetent.
From: [advantage.msn.com...]
MSN Search, on the MSN network of Internet services, is committed to providing Internet users with a smarter way to find relevant and useful results on the Web - and marketing clients with a smarter way to reach their customers.
MSN Search expands the boundaries of Internet capabilities by combining human and technical intelligence to deliver a more comprehensive Web search. Search actually analyzes what users are looking for and how, and then integrates these trends into future results, creating an intuitive service that grows "smarter" over time.
And most importantly, MSN Search reaches both the MSN audience and also those users who use the Microsoft Internet Explorer search functionality.
Why Market on MSN Search?
Searching for information is a fundamental activity for most Web users, and MSN Search ranks as one of the most popular search engines on the Internet. Because MSN Search users are specifically seeking information, your message reaches them at a crucial moment in their online activity. The fact is that people who use MSN Search are looking to click somewhere else. With relevant targeted placements, your message reaches users when they're ready to take action.
Benefits for advertisers on MSN Search include:
Targetability. Many advertising elements are driven from keywords, giving users both results and ads that are targeted to what they requested. Performance. Users come to MSN Search to go somewhere else. They want to click on the best results and go to another site to learn more or buy a product or service. With relevant ad placement, your message reaches users when they're ready to take action. Exclusivity. Many of the ad elements are sold exclusively or semi-exclusively over a period of time, giving a single advertiser the ability to reach consumers with a message for that time. Branding. With a large number of impressions and broad reach, MSN Search can help advertisers meet branding objectives, ideal for new product launches or promotions.
SearchDay #164 [searchenginewatch.com]
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]
Report that violation.
"Advertisers may bid on search terms only once, even if the site is using different URLs or the advertiser has multiple Overture advertising accounts. This policy helps ensure that users are presented with a variety of results and it prevents a single advertiser from monopolizing a particular search term. This policy also helps us maintain our fair and open marketplace."
Duplicate Search Terms [overture.com]
I wish he'd do this with his software....
MSN is testing Overture... :(
I'm Anti-Goto/Overture for 1 year now. Why ? Because they are everywhere.
There are less and less TRUE search engine :(
We have recently entered into a test agreement to expand our existing implementation with MSN. As a result, we will now deliver search results on MSN's primary search results page (www.msn.com)in addition to the search results we already deliver in the Microsoft Internet Explorer search pane.
Advertisers will see additional sales leads from this test on January 8, 2002 through the end of February. Overture's top three search listings will be shown for selected terms at www.msn.com in a section called "Sponsored Sites."
Users will see this same implementation for selected Spanish language terms when they conduct searches at www.yupimsn.com, MSN's
new Spanish site.
I give seo work only 12 months max, after that it wont be profitable. Everyone will be trying to get high on google (if they aint sold out to goto by that time).
Can you imagine optimising a site for "keyword1keyword2keyword3keyword4" picking up the bones that goto as left behind for google and all fast etc.
Very sad day indeedy
I just got the same email from overture.
Lawman
