Anatomy of a Netscam: Why Your Internet Search May Not Be as Honest as You Think -Reply

[Dan Lester]

>>> Chuck Munson <cm150 at umail.umd.edu> 07/08/96
11:54am >>>
The following is being sent with permission of the author.
--Chuck Munson (Univ. of Maryland College Park Libraries)

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Anatomy of a Netscam
Why Your Internet Search May Not Be as Honest as You
Think

By David Corn

Sunday, July 7 1996; Page C05
 The Washington Post

And one of the more imaginative notions -- which relies on a
pitch bordering on false advertising 
-------------------------
This is the purest of nonsense.  It is abundantly clear that
you're going to a commercial site.  
========================
 (IMGIS), an "interactive target marketing" firm based in
Irvine, Calif., bought up exclusive rights to specific words in
-------------------------
This is NOT true, as they obviously do NOT have "exclusive
rights".  It MAY be that they could pay a large enough fee to
Yahoo! to get exclusive links, but they didn't.  
==========================
IMGIS purchased the rights to 55 words related to politics:
-----------------------
And here he apparently contradicts himself, or at least drops
his claim that the rights are exclusive.
========================

 a flashy banner appears at the top of the resulting page,
promoting a "Top 10 Political Sites" list. Click on the image
and and you are transported to a page with colorful displays
for the top-10 political sites.
--------------------
This may have changed since the article was written, and
perhaps BECAUSE the article was written, but it no longer
says "Top 10 Political Sites" but "HOT Political Sites".  The
text link behind the graphic still DOES say "Top 10 Political
Sites".
=====================
"Seventy percent of all people looking for information will click
on our [top
10] ad," says Danielle Striker, the director for sales at IMGIS.
That is, they will follow the ad rather than select a site from
the list produced by the search.
------------------------
My experience, cited previously, is that Ms. Striker is either
wearing her marketing cap, or dreaming.  Sure, she HOPES
that people will do that, but I'll believe it when I see a genuine
research study that confirms it.....and not a study done by
IMGIS.  o-)
====================
The firm was clever to strike early.
---------------
Wow.  What a revelation.  Sounds like how business works,
huh?
==============
Some search services no longer sell exclusive rights to
words. Instead, they rotate the ad traffic for a given word.
---------------------------
Well, I haven't yet checked other search engines regarding
this "crisis", but it is obvious that Yahoo! didn't sell exclusive
rights either.  
=====================
The company's political-words project is clearly just the
beginning of a larger effort to make money off the flow of
Internet traffic.
-------------------------
If this author thinks that this is "just the beginning", where
has he been the last dozen webyears?  
=====================
More disturbing is the attempt to commercialize key access
points to the Net.
-------------------
Well, when he figures out a different way for such gigantic
services to be supported, I hope he'll let us know.  Does he
wanted the "Nataional Internet Indexing Agency" to do it for
us at government expense?  Of course they probably couldn't
index anything outside of the USA....     o-)
===================
It is not too hard to conceive of worrisome scenarios. A
pro-Republican dirty-tricks outfit could purchase rights to the
word "Clinton" and then lure readers to a site full of
anti-Clinton material. 
---------------------
Been there.  Done that.  Sounds like just what TV ads and
others do.  One can argue about whether or not it is a "dirty
trick" or "comedy", but the author should check out
http://clinton96.org/ , which I imagine was NOT funded by
Clinton or the Democrats.  o-) 
===============
Or vice-versa for Bob Dole.
Suppose Operation Rescue Catholic Church bought up the
word "abortion" and then ran an ad declaring "abortion is
murder" at the top of every page of the search results.
---------------------------
Sounds like free speech to me.  Is it any better or worse than
protesters holding up giant posters of photos of aborted
fetuses (feti?), or even having specimen jars with them
inside?
===================
Will young people who type "rap music" into a search
request be presented with a spiffy ad that once clicked upon
brings them to a site with a rappin' Joe Camel?
------------------------
So what if they do?  At first this all had a highly liberal slant,
and now it sounds highly protectionist and conservative.  Or,
maybe the slant is just to get folks excited over nonsense? 
(and of course advance the commercial interests of the
employer....but of course THAT couldn't be evil, could it?)
==================
The Internet has not been washed over yet by the wave of
commercialization that dominates broadcast and cable
media. 
-------------------------
Nonsense.  He's been napping again.
====================
The internet ..... will not support a culture of advertising the
way centralized media (like TV and radio) with passive
audiences do. That may be true.
---------------------------
Once again, he's dreaming.
==================
What is disturbing is the prospect that monied interests will
devise ways to commercialize and control key portions of
what is now a free-for-all and relatively egalitarian medium.
----------------------------
Once again, purest nonsense.  The Internet has never been a
free for all, and has always been controlled.  At times by
Defense Dept, NSF, etc.  At times by the universities.  BUT
SOMEONE WAS ALWAYS PAYING THE BILL.  THE
INTERNET HAS NEVER BEEN "FREE".  Anyone who thinks
it has doesn't understand Econ 201.  Now that I notice that
the author is a magazine editor, as well as a political
columnist, this whole pile of nonsense makes more sense.  

cyclops


Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator
Boise State University Library, Boise, Idaho, 83725 USA
voice: 208-385-1235   fax:  208-385-1394
dlester at bsu.idbsu.edu     OR    alileste at idbsu.idbsu.edu
Cyclops' Internet Toolbox:    http://cyclops.idbsu.edu
"How can one fool make another wise?"   Kansas, 1979.