Seeker of Truth
09-01-2003, 08:56 AM
http://www.google-watch.org/gifs/connec3.gif
And then there were four:
Why we target Google
Google is one of about four search engines that matter. There are many more than four engines, but only about four have the technology to crawl most of the web on a regular basis. Alltheweb, Google, and Inktomi do the best overall crawling. As of July 2003, Yahoo owns Overture, Fast/Alltheweb, AltaVista, and Inktomi, and is expected to dump its relationship with Google. Everything needed to turn Yahoo into a major search engine and pay-for-placement ad agency, at a level that can compete with Google, is under Yahoo's roof. That doesn't mean that Yahoo won't shoot themselves in the foot with all of this firepower.
Even Microsoft, which is busy developing its own engine, is currently squeezed between the advertising engine of Overture and the search engine Inktomi -- both of which are Yahoo property. Microsoft might like to buy Google as a way out, but Google is not for sale. Even if it were, there might be antitrust problems that prevent such an acquisition.
Just as Microsoft was late to recognize the importance of the Internet, they are once again unprepared to take on Yahoo and Google. In 2003 Microsoft began experimenting with their own crawler at a very low level. Good search engines need many months of practice before they can crawl the web effectively, and order the results so that searchers perceive them to be relevant. Some observers doubt that Microsoft has the coordination to achieve through in-house technical development, what they cannot achieve through acquisition and market manipulation. Even though they have announced that they are pouring resources into search engine development, this time it will take more than talk.
That gives us Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The last one worth watching is Teoma/AskJeeves. Their search technology is good, and on occasion they even seem serious about expanding their crawl. It remains to be seen how deeply and consistently they will be able to crawl websites with thousands of pages.
Google is easily top dog. They provide about 75 percent of the external referrals for most websites. There is no point in putting up a website apart from Google. It's do or die with Google. If we're all very lucky, one of the other three will offer some competition within a year or two. If we're not lucky, we will be uploading our websites to Google's servers by then, much like the bloggers do at blogger.com (which was bought by Google in 2003). It would mean the end of the web as we know it.
It is worthwhile to understand the pressures that the average, independent webmaster is under. And given that Google is so dominant, it's important to understand the pressures that are being brought to bear on Google, Inc. It does not take too much imagination to recognize that there's a struggle going on for the soul of the web, and the focal point of this struggle is Google itself.
At one level, it's a struggle for advertising revenue. The pundits look at only this level, and they are unanimous that the only advertising model on the web with any sort of future is one where little ads appear after being triggered by keyword searches, or by the non-ad content of the page. For example, a search for Google Watch may show some ads on the right side of the screen for wrist watches.
Much more @ google-watch.org (http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html)
And then there were four:
Why we target Google
Google is one of about four search engines that matter. There are many more than four engines, but only about four have the technology to crawl most of the web on a regular basis. Alltheweb, Google, and Inktomi do the best overall crawling. As of July 2003, Yahoo owns Overture, Fast/Alltheweb, AltaVista, and Inktomi, and is expected to dump its relationship with Google. Everything needed to turn Yahoo into a major search engine and pay-for-placement ad agency, at a level that can compete with Google, is under Yahoo's roof. That doesn't mean that Yahoo won't shoot themselves in the foot with all of this firepower.
Even Microsoft, which is busy developing its own engine, is currently squeezed between the advertising engine of Overture and the search engine Inktomi -- both of which are Yahoo property. Microsoft might like to buy Google as a way out, but Google is not for sale. Even if it were, there might be antitrust problems that prevent such an acquisition.
Just as Microsoft was late to recognize the importance of the Internet, they are once again unprepared to take on Yahoo and Google. In 2003 Microsoft began experimenting with their own crawler at a very low level. Good search engines need many months of practice before they can crawl the web effectively, and order the results so that searchers perceive them to be relevant. Some observers doubt that Microsoft has the coordination to achieve through in-house technical development, what they cannot achieve through acquisition and market manipulation. Even though they have announced that they are pouring resources into search engine development, this time it will take more than talk.
That gives us Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The last one worth watching is Teoma/AskJeeves. Their search technology is good, and on occasion they even seem serious about expanding their crawl. It remains to be seen how deeply and consistently they will be able to crawl websites with thousands of pages.
Google is easily top dog. They provide about 75 percent of the external referrals for most websites. There is no point in putting up a website apart from Google. It's do or die with Google. If we're all very lucky, one of the other three will offer some competition within a year or two. If we're not lucky, we will be uploading our websites to Google's servers by then, much like the bloggers do at blogger.com (which was bought by Google in 2003). It would mean the end of the web as we know it.
It is worthwhile to understand the pressures that the average, independent webmaster is under. And given that Google is so dominant, it's important to understand the pressures that are being brought to bear on Google, Inc. It does not take too much imagination to recognize that there's a struggle going on for the soul of the web, and the focal point of this struggle is Google itself.
At one level, it's a struggle for advertising revenue. The pundits look at only this level, and they are unanimous that the only advertising model on the web with any sort of future is one where little ads appear after being triggered by keyword searches, or by the non-ad content of the page. For example, a search for Google Watch may show some ads on the right side of the screen for wrist watches.
Much more @ google-watch.org (http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html)