Paid Web Listings

At one time, you could enter a query about Albert Einstein on an Internet search engine and be confident the top links would include his biography and summary of his research.

These days, Internet users looking for online information about the Nobel Prize-winning physicist may instead get pointed to a Web site selling posters, including some of Einstein.

Once relatively objective, search engines are increasingly becoming commercial. In an effort to survive the online industry's financial struggles, they are providing links based not just on relevancy, but on who pays for top billing.

Who exactly is doing this?

Over the past several months, most of the Internet's biggest portals have added these so-called pay-for-placement search engines to their repertoire. Yet in some cases, users are not explicitly told that the top links provided to them are really advertisements in disguise.

"That is just plain unethical," said Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters, a magazine based in Canada that opposes the proliferation of advertising. "It comes to the point where I can't feel outrage anymore."

Among the big Web sites featuring a handful of paid listings with its search results are Yahoo, AltaVista, America Online, Ask Jeeves and Microsoft's MSN.com. Go.com goes a step further by featuring what is often several consecutive pages of paid links.

Why are these organisations doing this?

A major factor behind the growth of search results for sale is the decline of traditional online banner sales. Online companies are struggling to make up for the loss, even if it means implementing marketing techniques they once shunned.

Have Search Engines Always Been Commercial Free?

Of course, Internet search engines and portals were never really commercial- free zones to begin with. Most of them have featured banner advertisements of some sort since their infancy.

However, the editorial independence of search, once sacrosanct, began to erode last year. Several online companies began charging to include Web sites in their search results but demurred at going as far as guaranteeing placement for money.

They got over that last bit of apprehension in when America Online began including a handful of paid-placement links. It did so through a partner, GoTo.com, which has since made similar deals with MSN.com, Lycos and AltaVista.

The major portals are willing to use services like GoTo.com because they share the advertising fees. Some portals have their own programs and collect the money themselves.

"You have to balance the fine line between creating an optimal product and a product that generates revenue," said Gannon Giguiere, director of product marketing for AltaVista. "People don't mind advertisements in certain instances. The key is whether those advertisements are relevant."

Who Says Who Gets Top Listing in Search Results Then?

The business side of GoTo, the most widely adopted pay-for-placement search engine, is an auction in which advertisers compete for top placement for specific queries. The rankings can change on the hour as companies pledge to pay GoTo more or less each time a user clicks on their link.

EBay, for example, recently paid GoTo 16 cents per click to be the top result for queries about Abraham Lincoln. It was followed in the rankings by Pricegrabber.com, a shopping site that paid 7 cents for each person sent to a sales pitch for "Abraham Lincoln," a 1930 film by D.W. Griffith.

Kevin Pursglove, a spokesman for EBay, said pay-for-placement search allows for more targeted advertising than online banners. He conceded that many people who enter queries about Abraham Lincoln may not be looking for merchandise, but said they could perhaps be convinced otherwise.

"Individuals may be looking for professional research or advancing professional goals," Pursglove said. "But they may also have a collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia. It opens them up to a whole host of items."

How Does the Searcher Know What is Paid For and What is Not?

Web sites with paid-for-placement search results vary widely in what they disclose to consumers. They range from relatively open to ambiguous.

Among the most forthcoming is Yahoo, whose paid listings are at the top of the page in a box titled "Sponsored." Users can click on an accompanying link to learn that the sponsor program is "a fee-based service" that allows some commercial sites "to receive enhanced placement."

Microsoft's MSN is more vague about its paid listings by calling them "featured sites." It provides consumers no other explanation.

Netscape simply calls its paid listings "partner results." IWon.com, a portal that offers users cash prizes, did the same until a few days ago but changed it to "featured listings" after a reporter inquired about the earlier title's clarity.

Many Web sites should do more to inform consumers that some search links depend on who is paying.  The industry should get together and create standard phrases for what they call paid for placement on their sites.

Isn’t it all Just About Revenue Raising?

All Internet company executives interviewed were adamant that pay-for- placement results are useful. The commercial bias of the links will help people who want to buy products online, they said.

The Web executives added that pay-for-placement policies usually keep companies like Nike from buying the top link for queries about Abraham Lincoln, for example. In any case, they said it is a waste of money to try to sell shoes to people who are clearly looking for information about another topic.

One of the biggest limits on pay for placement may be that some topics do not readily lend themselves to marketing. After all, what big companies offer consumer products related to obscure subjects like molecular biology and astrophysics?

"Of course, there are some categories that don't do well," said AltaVista's Giguiere. "Over time, you just stop showing the ones that don't work."

Which is why, Giguiere said, AltaVista, like most other Web sites, also shows search results selected impartially by mathematical equation on the same page as results for sale. He said AltaVista will never show more than three paid listings per page.

On the other hand, LookSmart's Thornley was unable to think of subjects advertisers would avoid, illustrating how widespread pay for placement may be in the future. He initially offered Gothic cathedrals and Greek mythology as examples, but then reconsidered after realizing travel agents could target people interested in churches, while bookstores could market to fans of the poet Homer.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au