garyp
09-03-2004, 10:25 AM
Visual Search Toolbar Performs Better For Advertisers
Media Post
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=267182
This one uses the Yahoo database and adds snapshot images of pages.
Comment:
Is this toolbar helping the searcher or just causing them to click on paid results?
The only characteristic that distinguishes paid from natural results is a gray border that outlines all paid results. Natural results follow in a white outline. The only way the end-user knows this is if he or she read the end-user licensing agreement, which is a "notification" method that is often controversially deployed by ad-supported software companies. It's controversial precisely because most users don't carefully read licensing agreements.
Nevertheless, advertisers, Viewpoint, and Yahoo! all benefit from the practice. According to Viewpoint CEO Jay Amato, Viewpoint's paid listings have a higher click-through rate than the rest of the industry, but he declined to go into specifics. According to Amato, Viewpoint splits paid search profits with Yahoo! subsidiary Overture Services (which powers Yahoo!'s paid search technology) 50-50. Amato said the company made no agreement with Yahoo! about the practice of paid inclusion. However, he noted that Viewpoint's search results are marginally different from those of its search provider.
Media Post
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=267182
This one uses the Yahoo database and adds snapshot images of pages.
Comment:
Is this toolbar helping the searcher or just causing them to click on paid results?
The only characteristic that distinguishes paid from natural results is a gray border that outlines all paid results. Natural results follow in a white outline. The only way the end-user knows this is if he or she read the end-user licensing agreement, which is a "notification" method that is often controversially deployed by ad-supported software companies. It's controversial precisely because most users don't carefully read licensing agreements.
Nevertheless, advertisers, Viewpoint, and Yahoo! all benefit from the practice. According to Viewpoint CEO Jay Amato, Viewpoint's paid listings have a higher click-through rate than the rest of the industry, but he declined to go into specifics. According to Amato, Viewpoint splits paid search profits with Yahoo! subsidiary Overture Services (which powers Yahoo!'s paid search technology) 50-50. Amato said the company made no agreement with Yahoo! about the practice of paid inclusion. However, he noted that Viewpoint's search results are marginally different from those of its search provider.