Altavista goes to GOTO.com!

[Brett_Tabke]

[biz.yahoo.com]

[grnidone]

That sucks. You have to pay to get anything anymore. Goodbye sites with lots of content that can't afford it.

How many does this make now that Goto supplies the results to?

AOL, Lycos UK, Hotbot UK, now AltaVista...

Any I missed?
-G

[makemetop]

Not HotBot UK or Lycos UK(yet) but results started showing on HotBot US today! It is certainly looking like you have to pay to play if you are running any sort of business - but people will need us more and more!

[seth_wilde]

"Any I missed?"

netscape, nbci, dogpile...

"HotBot US today!"

Is this just for some searches? I haven't seen it on any that I've done.....

[rcjordan]

>nbci

SHHHH!! Darn, there goes the neighborhood.

[makemetop]

It was there for around an hour at 16.00 GMT. I saw it last just prior to my last posting, but not there now, obviously testing. The first 3 results come up as 'Featured sites' above the main results with title and shortened goto description. 4th result appears between position 9 and 10 as 'Featured site' with title and no description apart from when you move cursor over the title. It then pops up like an alt tag. Top positions look OK, position -in between- looks lousy!

[grnidone]

MakeMe:

>It was there for around an hour at 16.00 GMT.

I am lost...where is "there"

Thanks,
G

[seth_wilde]

G-

he was talking about goto results on hotbot........

[grnidone]

Seth:
Thanks.
-G

[redzone]

I think the one thing everyone is overlooking here, is that "everything cycles".. The SE's that were once strong, for the most part are now weak (Excite/IS).. When DMOZ, came along, everyone touted it as the second coming of the Messiah(Yahoo), only free, and no corporate glut.. Look at it now.... Portals are moving a bit away from DMOZ, and the shift will only go stronger.

Why? Because the same content on every portal, makes them lose their "unique" identity.. What's the draw to go somewhere different for information, if you know it's going to be the same "stuff", in a different wrapper... Everyone's jumping on the "Goto" bandwagon, because it means "easy revenues". No ads to sell, no accounts to maintain, just sell off a little bit of the top real estate above the fold, for a hundred million or so, and improve your bottom line instantly....

But again, everything cycles... AOL will probably always be a strong portal, but who's going to power their search index two years from today... Excite got greedy, and cut a deal with Netscape.. AOL buys Netscape, and soon after drops Excite.. Everything cycles... Direct Hit was the new darling last year, Goto is a "revenue" infusion this year...

It's our job to shift with these cycles, and do our best to benefit our clients, or our own web sites... We can complain, or we can compete... If one can't afford the "PPC Craze", find other alternatives. You may have to work harder, but it's a matter of survival. Or just go back to that desk job for some "brick and mortar" company...

The times are a changin, and the good news is, in six months to a year, they'll be changin again.. Ain't the web wonderful? :)

[bigmac]

e-mail just received from GoTo

Subject: Two New Large Portal Deals Just Signed!

Two New Large Portal Deals Just Signed!
***AltaVista and Lycos bring GoTo one step closer to becoming the largest,
single source of Web traffic!***

GoTo is excited to announce two new major portal deals that will bring an
increase in traffic to advertisers beginning this month! These two new partnerships
significantly expand GoTo's affiliate network and as a result will allow
us to provide you with a one-stop approach to meeting all of your Web traffic
needs.

Take a look at how this great traffic will come your way!

Lycos Network Sites:
====================
In this agreement, GoTo will provide Paid Search Results to Lycos Network
Sites, which includes both Lycos.com and HotBot.com. Users who conduct searches
on Lycos.com, HotBot.com and the directory pages of Lycos Network sites will
be shown search results that include GoTo's top 3 listings in a section called
"Featured Listings." In addition, at least 2 additional GoTo listings will
appear among the first 10 results in the "Web Sites" section on Lycos.com,
and GoTo's 4th listing will appear in the number 10 position in HotBot's
"Web Results" section.

According to Lycos, over 90% of their visitors have shopped online in the
past six months, giving you a great opportunity to reach up to 30 million
monthly visitors, who are looking for your products and services!

Full traffic is expected to be in place by the end of November. We will
update you as we get closer to the implementation date.

AltaVista:
==========
In another milestone event, GoTo will become the exclusive Pay-For-Performance™
search provider for the millions of users of AltaVista. This partnership
presents an opportunity for GoTo advertisers to receive traffic from the
savvy users of one of the most widely-used search sites! The AltaVista implementation
will take place as follows:

***Preview***
The top 5 GoTo results will appear in a section labeled "Sponsored Listings"
on selected AltaVista search results pages. Users can access additional
GoTo results by clicking on the "More" link at the end of these results.
The Preview is expected to bring several million searches a day. This implementation,
which went live today, can be seen when entering a search at [listings.altavista.com....]

***Launch***
Effective November 20th, GoTo's top 3 listings will also appear in a section
labeled "Sponsored Listings" for searches conducted on the AltaVista site
at www.altavista.com. By selecting the "More" link at the end of Sponsored
Listings, users will be presented with a full page of GoTo results. This
launch will expose your listings to a significant portion of AltaVista's
50 million searches a day!

Managing Increased Traffic:
===========================
Remember that you can use our DirecTraffic Center™at [secure.goto.com...]
to manage your bids to ensure that your site is within the top listings.
As you know, we continuously look for opportunities to drive targeted traffic
to your site. Rest assured that if you are unable to move your bid within
the top listings, you will still receive high-volume quality traffic from
GoTo's other affiliate partnerships.

Sincerely,
Dan Scholnick
Vice President of Client Services

Questions? Email us at: [e-mail]

NOTE: Due to restrictions in our agreement with Lycos Network Sites and
AltaVista, there are some scenarios in which specific search terms or advertisers
may be excluded from the GoTo search results on Lycos.com, HotBot.com, and
AltaVista.com or their distribution partners. For more details on these
excluded terms, please visit our DirecTraffic Center™.

[seth_wilde]

I can't believe how quickly it's launching on AV(the 20th), this must have been in the plans for quite some time....

What's up with the hotbot listings? that's kind of an odd way to go about it........

[bigjohnt]

Having read the descriptions, I think I've gained a little insight. If they (AV) are disallowing search terms from GoTo in categories such as Adult, travel, real estate --hmmm.. they must have "business partners" in these categories queued up. My guess is that if you are in one of these categories, don't even bother trying to rank here. Reading the "excluded search terms" in the GoTo Directraffic center, I see a few industries that will be MUCH more difficult to optimize for. Reason being, if they will not even allow bidding on these search terms in deference to their partners, why would they not also favor their partners in ranking? Hotbot/Lycos and AOL have their own set of restrictions, with some overlap. AOL - no alcohol, gambling, tobacco products? Hunh?
From Lycos excluded terms:
"Due to restrictions in our agreement with Lycos, listings that contain content relating to the telecommunications industry, such as wireless, mobile phones and calling cards, will not be included in the search results that appear on Lycos.com or HotBot.com. In addition, the following selected terms will also not be included: credit card(s) and web hosting. "
My read on this is, whenever we have a commercial interest in your product category, you are screwed. We will not care if you are in ODP, Yahoo, Looksmart, GoTo, wherever. You will be buried in our index, and our "preferred partners" the ones with the dough, will rule.
Why would I expect the web to behave any differently than the world at large?

[yanton]

Anyone got a list of who GoTo.UK will be supplying visits to? So far: Freeserve - all results, and top results only to AOL and Lycos?

Have I missed anyone?

I'm trying to promote a UK toy company, so a definate answer from anyone will be appreciated.