The news that AOL might be allowed to run banner ads on Google turned out to be false, but in the few days before the rumor was quashed more than a few folks in the SEM world were irked. To many, banner ads on Google represented the transition from “Do No Evil” to “Be a Big Corporation”, or to paraphrase George Orwell, from “All animals are created equal” to “All animals are created equal, but some animals are created more equal than others.” But is this really cause … Continue reading →

Step 4: Pay Users (Frequent Searcher Programs) The final step to destroying Google is the concept of paying users for their searches. This has recently been suggested by Microsoft, with much ridicule within the industry. Is it really such a silly idea, though? Let’s investigate. The first company to try to do this was AllAdvantage. This was the multi-level-marketing company that your friend sent you an email about around 2000. The header was probably something like “get paid to surf!” You had to download a browser and watch … Continue reading →

On with the show – part three of four Step 3: Decentralize Search Engines This one (and the next one) are a little crazy, I admit, but hear me out. Yahoo’s recent acquisition of del.icio.us and Flickr have the potential to be very interesting in the long run. These are companies that allow individuals to in essence create their own personalized search engines of Web sites and photos. I can tag a bunch of Web sites and then conduct a search of my own tags to find out … Continue reading →

And now . . . the continuing saga – how Yahoo and MSN can level the playing field against Google. Step 2: Fix Your User Interfaces Google’s traffic distribution is not the only competitive advantage Yahoo and MSN can attack. Google is currently light years ahead of both companies in terms of ease of use for advertisers. Google’s AdWords user interface is actually fun to use and keeps getting better and better (in fact, be on the lookout for a desktop beta they will be releasing soon). The … Continue reading →

In my ongoing attempt to spread joy and goodwill throughout the search engine marketing community, today I offer Yahoo and MSN a priceless gift – free advice on how to destroy Google! Let me first start with a caveat – I don’t hate Google and I don’t have any special love for Yahoo or Microsoft. I know a lot of folks at all three companies and I like almost all of them (there’s always going to be a few bad apples everywhere of course). Every search engine marketer … Continue reading →