[Fwd: Re: Preferred Listings]

[Thomas Dowling]

> 
> I hope you'll take a minute to look at them. Go to Open Text and search 
> for "web" or "internet magazine" or "business news". Please let me know 
> what you think.


Well, now I'm just confused.  OT's own publicity for this service says
that "Your Preferred Listing is aimed at the majority of users, the ones
who search for a single word. That means your listing for Exotic Vacations
Inc. will appear as the #1 result every time someone searches for
'travel'..."  But when I search for the single word "web" the first
preferred listing is between ranked results 4 and 5, well off the first
screen for my browser.  There's a similar result for the "business news"
search; "internet magazine" does manage to get of the preferred listings
at the top, followed by two hits for the same phone sex scam, and then the
second preferred listing.  (And then more phone sex.)

I'm still unconvinced that this is a Bad Thing for searchers, but it sure
doesn't look like a Good Thing for the companies that pay for the service.
 On the contrary, it seems to underscore the value of clogging your
document with false keywords, which costs you nothing.

Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu