• "He who controls the search engines, controls the internet universe". 

This is a play on a popular quote from the Hubert book DUNE.  Its ramifications are clear.  As any business on the Internet can tell you, there is no greater way to position yourself as a market leader than to appear on the first page of a major (Google) search engine for targeted keyword phrases.

For webmasters, the major search engines are the most important places to be listed, because they easily generate the lion’s share of all website traffic.  For searchers, well-known search engines generally mean more dependable results.  

And that is the game at this time: more dependable results.  What does this mean?  It means quite simply, pointing a user to what they want quickly.  At the time of this writing, all search engines are roughly equivalent, that is, when you type in a word or phrase, any given engine will return results hyper-linked and underlined in blue with a few sentences of text usually highlighting the meta information or body information that pertains to the phrase entered by the user.  Some cache previously visited websites ensuring that information can be obtained, while others have built in translators. 

A marked innovation in the dependable results arena is the Google page rank system, whereby accurate results are achieved by counting inbound and outbound links to any given site and ranking the site by the quality of other websites that point to the target site.   

A simple example is as follows:  Site X has three links pointing to it.   It is listed in Yahoo (page rank 8 for listings) and Dmoz (page rank 5 for listings) as well as a single friend’s personal website. (usually personal websites are page rank 4) This scenario, based on the following formula:

 
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(Ti)/C(Ti) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

where

• PR(A) is the PageRank of page A,
• PR(Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A,
• C(Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti and
• d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1.

Page X would be ranked at approximately 6

(You will note that this is why Yahoo inclusion is highly sought after)

The page rank would then decrease depending on the OUTBOUND links; that is, links to other websites from site X.  The ‘linked to’ websites will gain page rank from site X as it is included on Yahoo and Dmoz, siphoning off some of its ‘page rank popularity’. 

 There are two kinds of search engines.

   ·          General

          These are the large services such as Google, Altavista and MSN

   ·         Directories 

These include engines such as Dmoz.org and Yahoo. 

Each serve a purpose and the information each contain will overlap.  Google for instance, on a weekly basis, downloads the content of Dmoz and Yahoo, then adds their directory listings to it’s general search contents albeit with a higher page rank than would normally be awarded.  Yahoo supplements it’s search results with Google search results, that is, if a search is performed, Yahoo searches it’s directory, then if results are not found, or are too few, will add Google results into the mix.   

The purpose of directories is to allow a user to find websites that fit a certain category.  Quality is assured as each website that is in a popular directory (Yahoo, Dmoz, etc) is reviewed by human employees (Yahoo) or volunteers. (Dmoz)  The employee/volunteer will write the description of the site ensuring tight, focused, and spam free text for the website.  The human element creates a directory of quality results, however, because of the limited abilities the human element brings to the mix, the result set for any given search or category is miniscule compared to that of a ‘robot generated’ search engine such as Google. 

• Major Players

KEY: GG =Google, YH=Yahoo, MSN=MSN, AOL=AOL, AJ=Ask Jeeves,
NS=Netscape, OVR=Overture (GoTo), IS=InfoSpace, AV=AltaVista,
LY=Lycos, LS=LookSmart, ELINK=EarthLink.com 

It is important to be aware that AOL and Yahoo use Google results, so in effect, Google controls not 28% of the market, but over 55% (Although adding all the market shares of Google, AOL and Yahoo is greater than 75%, much of their results are generated ‘in house’ and google is used to supplement these results (approx :50%) 

Some services listed may have greater reach than the chart reflects. For instance, links from Overture appear on search results pages at Yahoo, MSN and Lycos, to name only a few of Overture's partners. However, the chart only shows people who actually visited Overture itself or who visited a site "powered" by Overture, where the overture.com domain shows in the browser address window, after a search is performed.

There are some familiar names, such as All-The-Web or the Open Directory that are not included. These are services that didn't get enough traffic to make it into the top list. They receive less audience share than the last service shown on the chart. As for Teoma, its traffic is included in that for parent company Ask Jeeves. 

• Money

The Internet advertising model was in a full tail spin by the end of 2000.  Large companies began to post significant losses as banners and other graphic media advertising became more un-cool and un-clicked.  The loss of effectiveness was quickly noticed by the online business segment who switched to more traditional means of advertising.  It was at this time that google quietly made inroads to market dominance.  Free of graphic clutter, people slowly made the transition to the fast, relevant search engine that seemed advertising free.

Internet advertising is making a quiet comeback.  It is not the same animal it once was.  Banner advertising and it’s brethren are still on the outs as companies and the consultants that position them on the Internet are more savvy, opting to pay for results, not clicks.

This model has given rise to a new dawn for search engines, as their inherent functionality makes them a prime candidate for the focused demographic any given Internet business is after.

There are several successful revenue models for search engines at the time of this writing.  This is not to say these are the only revenue models, but these the focal point for all engines and directories.  Paid inclusion and placement are by far the most attractive of the following alternatives as they do not detract from the end-user experience. 

• Paid Inclusion 

Until 2000, paying for inclusion into a search engine was almost inconceivable at any search engine other than Overture (formerly Goto.com). Now, it's commonplace and a major generator of revenue for websites such as Yahoo ($299.00 for consideration of inclusion within 7 days – with the majority of paying customers not being included at all.)  Paid inclusion can mean many things.  Beyond simple inclusion into a search directory, (an option that Google does not provide) being visible on any given search engine is now possible in one form or fashion.  Paid inclusion usually includes a visit from the engine’s robots on a regular basis, usually between 48 hours to 7 days.  Unlike paid placement, this doesn't guarantee a particular position in the main search results. However, also unlike paid placement, it does interact directly with the editorial results. Being more deeply listed can help an advertiser be more likely to appear in response to a wide range of searches.

Banner Ads: All major search engines carry keyword-linked banner advertising, either using graphical banners, (Yahoo) text banners (Google), or a combination of both (most engines).

Content Promotion: Many major search engines will promote an advertiser's content, or their own content, on their search results pages. This is usually done in a separate area from the editorial results.

Paid Placement: Several major search engines carry paid placement listings, where sites are guaranteed a high ranking, usually in relation to desired words. The exact position of these listings can vary. Sometimes, they appear above editorial links. Other times, they appear at the bottom of editorial content. "Sidebar" style runs alongside the search engine's editorial area.

Paid Placement: A variation which is rapidly becoming a mainstream for revenue is the orffer of Pay Per Click inclusions in the Search results. Overture, which pioneered the idea said, "If advertisers are so desperate to be number one in the listings of a search engine result, why don't just pay to be there. Basically this means that an advertiser agrees to pay such and such per click, and a kink to their site will appear at the top of any search using keywords relevant to their site. The advertiser only pays the agreed amount a viewer clicks on the presented link, guaranteeing a top return per advertising dollar.

This is also obviously the most targeted of all possible advertising mediums, since it puts a link to their webwsite in front of veiwers looking for specifically their type of website. Overture has also introduced the concept of bidding, so whoever agrees to pay the highest amount per click, gets the first link in the presented results and so on.  

• Search engines are uniquely positioned to make money from these new advertising paradigms because the companies that buy (and their consultants) have learned from the mistakes of the past.  Money spent on Internet advertising must be tightly focused, not only to a certain demographic, but their demographic looking for their product.  No Internet model is suited to this task with the exception of the Internet Search Engine.

• The Road Ahead

Each of the leading search engines posses one or more gimmicks that propel them above the hundreds of other search engines.  For All-The-Web it is their fast inclusion and frequent website visits.  Yahoo possesses name recognition and a large, human created directory of sites that ensure homogeny and quality.  The Ask-Jeeves gimmick relies on a system that can field full sentences and questions, parse the grammar, then perform (behind the scenes) alternate search engine searches against the relevant words with the text then return reformatted results from each of the engines.

Look is uniquely positioned to become a major player in a relatively short amount of time (12-18 months) because of it’s potential name cache and existing infrastructure which will facilitate quick modification and addition of cutting edge, never before seen features.  Once a user visits Look, experiences something new and innovative, the name will allow the user to easily return.  Beyond the fact that no search engine is in possession of a name that can potentially become the market leader, Look.com is easily entered into any browser as it is easily remembered and can be quickly typed into any browser.

Before money can be made in any of the many available search engine revenue models, a significant amount of traffic must be generated.  The baseline amount of traffic for any large website is 10 million hits per month.  This amount of traffic is to be considered minimal.  Although monies can be made on traffic less than this, any amount of traffic below 10 million hits should be considered sub-par. 

For March 2002, there were an estimated 114 million Internet users online in the US at work or at home, 80 percent of whom are estimated to have made some type of search request during the month. The share of users who use search engines, do so regularly, making the pie of ‘website hits’ somewhere over one half billion hits per month.

A move to great market share can be made provided a few important considerations are followed:

·         Innovation

·         Ease of Use

Innovation, which can also be characterized as ‘the gimmick(s)’, should be well planned and executed such that the implementation is easy to use.  Because of the nature of the Internet, a business has one shot at capturing a user and creating a following.  Considering the best gimmicks of the competitors and bringing in ideas that none have conceived of, a search engine product can be created that would be innovative enough as to take the market by virtual storm. 

Certain changes to the existing Look system, such as removal of all pop-ups, clutter, unprofitable advertising schemes, putting the focus of traffic and popularity building which would necessitate a concentration on the end-user experience (almost to the exclusion of all other factors) would be paramount.   An effort to streamline existing structures within the Look website have not been mentioned in this paper as they are not absolutely required.

Further additions and schematics have not been considered in this paper as they are not part of the initial client acquisition and traffic building process.  A single minded focus on advanced and simple user features should be considered at every step as integral and necessary for any future business plan.