Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: levy who wrote (11641)	8/29/1999 1:58:00 AM
From: RTev	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28311

I type "web hosting" under metacrawler and nothing about hypermart comes up so I say ok I'll try business web hosting and low and behold it comes up But what do you see as the solution? Do you think they should change the sorting rules in MetaCrawler to force GNET matches to the top no matter where they are in the search engines? Or is it, instead, a problem with the use of meta tags and page titles within Hypermart? I think the first solution would be highly problematic. And, unfortunately, the second solution seems to be already implemented. Hypermart uses both "web hosting" and "business hosting" in its description. That should bring it up on some of the engines, but perhaps the use of graphic for things like "Free Business Hosting" presents a problem. Some engines won't use the alt tags and some don't use meta tags. Either rule would drop the page lower in the results for that search engine. It's a tricky business to get any one engine to put a certain entry at the top of its listings. Metacrawler then applies its own rules, as I understand it, based on what's returned by the search engine. Hypermart seems to fall down the list under Metacrawler rules because the page title that is currently indexed (which is simply "Hypermart") at least in LookSmart does not include any of the search terms. Even that has changed, however. The page title is now "Hypermart - Free Business Hosting". Maybe that's a recent change. If so, it will take many months before it's reflected in the results of the search engines since all of them are notoriously slow at updating their databases. But things get even odder. Even though MetaCrawler returns an entry from (Go2Net's) LookSmart, when one tries the search for "business web hosting" within LookSmart itself, it doesn't return a link to Hypermart.

To: levy who wrote (11641)	8/29/1999 1:22:00 PM
From: White Shoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

1. METACRAWLER returns results from other search engines. It's not feasible or ethical for go2net to exert any control over its results, at least not directly. 2. Verio has probably purchased keywords causing its banner to be displayed in certain instances. This is part of the way go2net derives revenue from metacrawler. 3. Go2net has a lot of other ways of asserting itself so that people using go2net services are made aware of Hypermart: such as the go2net main page which defaults to a potpourri of Go2Net features. 4. I am sure that over time, the marketing of Hypermart could be improved - for example, if Go2net ever moves towards any permission-based e-mail newsletters, various go2net properties might be advertised and cross-referenced. It's become fairly well accepted now that search engine 'loading' and 'trickery' is more trouble than it is worth. There is a lot more to marketing a web site or service than search engine placement. And Hypermart is already doing extremely well - it is not hurting for business. If you're still inclined to complain about this, go to Google! and try your search. That should give you an idea of how well Hypermart is known on the web, and in what esteem it is held (since Google tries to use its algorithm to measure reputation). I typed "web hosting" and Google told me that the common word "web" would be ignored. But even with just the word "hosting", Google returned Xoom #1 and Hypermart #2 - actually looks like about a tie for first. I then tried "business hosting", and Hypermart came in at #1 on Google. Still have a problem?