Forum Moderators: open
- first a set of 3 "FEATURED SITES", probably a msn deal (M$N's own PPC?) with #2 & #3 being msn.expedia*
- then a set of 3 "SPONSORED SITES" from Overture
then in "WEB DIRECTORY SITES" brought to you by L$:
- a link to Ask Jeeves "most popular" with, and that's news to me, yet an other layer of advertising: a new Premier Listing on top of the Overture "Partner Search Result" with 10 (!) PPC before the token "Popular Direct Hit Web Sites". Guess who's the Premier Listing? msn.expedia!
- 2 token relevant results
- in #6 position, yet an OTHER msn.expedia listing!
How can M$N still call this a search result? Where do they find all these smoke screen names for their different layers of advertising? I just love their subtle shotgun approach.
Joe public will surf less and less if he finds only garbage a la Dogpile. What about kids doing school research having to find their way through Sponsored Listings, Featured sites, PPC scam "Web Directories" & tutti quanti?
Even guys like us "trying to sell more widgets" (Everyman's post in this tread [webmasterworld.com]) need an alternative to money corrupted commercial search engines. Even the worst individualist small businessman should understand that all the top spots will be bought by big corporations in the long term (maybe shorter than you think).
No way that the future of SE is praying everyday that Google stays "pure" or that websurfers will vote with their mice for purity so new private enterprise SE will be created with purity as a business model to fill the void.
I'm just amazed how it just took less than 2 years for the misleading used car salesman mentality to take over most of the major SE.
Message to Joe public: use Google, use Google! While I keep praying...
I think that a new tread should be created: The urgent need for a relevant non-profit alternative to commercial SE.
* USA Networks swapped [usanetworks.com] shares with M$N for Expedia February 5,2002, so M$N still owns part of it via it's share of USA Networks. I found this product description in Yahoo shopping, fits the M$N approach to their paid advertising listings: "Perfect for festive and elegant occasions, this cake form gives the appearance of a complex multilayer cake. But...this single cake form lets you bake with ease and simplicity".
