PPC listing on Alltheweb

Kanoodle / Espotting

[heini]

As reported by Seoboy [webmasterworld.com] earlier today:
Alltheweb displays a paid listing on top of several SERPs. The listing reflects the highest bid on PPC engine Kanoodle.com. See here for a list of searchterms on sale
[safe.kanoodle.com...]

Those listings also appear on Lycos.com SERPs.

Kanoodle furthermore announces a partnership with PPC company Espotting, Lycos.Europe´s chosen partner for sold top5 listings.
[safe.kanoodle.com...]

[heini]

Hmm. Somehow the paid Kanoodle listing on Alltheweb doesn´t show anymore - a temporary thing?

[ggrot]

Yeah, I actually gave this a try. Worked for a couple days, now it doesnt. Same with lycos. Maybe I should ask for a refund.

[heini]

>Worked for a couple days, now it doesnt. Same with lycos

On Lycos.com I still see those START HERE: listings, not so on Alltheweb.

[heini]

>not so on Alltheweb
It´s back. What makes me wonder: what effect does such a listing without any description, just a plain, short business/website name have? Personally I´d never click on a name, when directly below are descriptions with lots of keywords signalling relevance to my query.

[backus]

Fast told me that they were looking into CPC listings. Begun perhaps?

[Napoleon]

Thin end of the usual nasty wedge... today one small insert, tomorrow?

Although I have never ranked well on FAST, I have always batted for them, admiring the purity of their returns and hoping they would provide healthy competition for Google in the 'non-polluted' search engine domain.

That's all out of the window now of course, with this sell out.

I too noticed the adverts are actually billed under the term "Start Here". Yet another example of an SE deceiving its customers.

Honesty would dictate the word ADVERT. Lip service to honesty perhaps would lead to SPONSORED LISTING. Anything else is pure deception. It is a paid placement.. an advert.

They have to be careful of course. As I have observed many times, once an SE starts to compromise its perceived relevancy for short term click cash, the outward drift of searchers begins. Ask AV and others!

Another sad day for pure search I'm afraid, and in my opinion, the turning point for FAST in the long term.