RE: UKNM: Search Engines and Shopping Malls ?

[Chris Meachin]

> Do you think that it is fair to the consumer that companies can

> get within

> the 1st 5 listings of a search engine via payments and technical

> trickery ?


The only decent sized search service which takes payment in return for high

rankings within it's actual search results is GoTo.com. I don't see this as

being any kind of threat to the major engines which do not do this anyway

(AltaVista, Yahoo, Lycos, ODP, Excite etc).


As for technical trickery - It's hard to apply a definition to this. To some

people merely optimising a web site (through the use of well thought-out

meta tags, pages titles, page design and body copy) could be considered

'trickery'.


Many other people would consider the use of search engine friendly 'bridge

pages' (which cannot be viewed by normal site users) and similar devices as

unfair.


I would argue that if a search engine is unable to glean useful and accurate

information from your 'real' site for whatever reason (maybe it is weighed

down with flash/jscript/frames/dynamic content etc) then it can be

acceptable to offer alternative information for indexing. Of course, this

only holds true if the alternative content does accurately reflect your

content, product or service offering.


Like any kind of web application/technology (design, programming etc), such

devices do not intrinsically cost anything: If you know what you're doing,

you can do it yourself  - for free.


> Are we really giving the consumer a choice ?


Yes. Search services still offer users some of the best ways to get what

they're looking for on the internet. They also offer small businesses an

almost unique forum in which they can compete with larger, richer companies.

Getting listed well on search engines doesn't *have* to cost the earth if

you're competent (see above).


> Are we being governed on the net by companies that have financial clout ?


Naturally, companies with bigger budgets can afford to pay for professional

services. Business is not a democracy. Sorry. This is true of any kind of

industry.


> What is going to happen to the small to medium size web company ?


Odd question, even if it is rhetorical. I didn't realise there was *a* small

to medium size web company. There is no generic rule for success based on

the size of your company. Intelligent companies with good ideas will survive

regardless of size. Bigger companies which can't get to grip with the medium

will go under or go offline. Pretty simple business concept I reckon.


Chris.

_____________________________________________

Christopher F Meachin | Associate Creative Director

The Mob | AGENCY.COM | London | 020 7573 5900




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