Comments on: Curiouser and Curiouser http://peteashdown.org/journal/2007/04/17/curiouser-and-curiouser/ Fast Forward the Future Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:08:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Misty Fowler http://peteashdown.org/journal/2007/04/17/curiouser-and-curiouser/comment-page-1/#comment-30436 Misty Fowler Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:39:54 +0000 http://peteashdown.org/journal/?p=121#comment-30436 A search engine's purpose is to give you a variety of results so that you can find the information you want. It's not meant to give you the single result because a company paid to be that result. Another issue that I see... I own a Jeep Wrangler. There are several companies that make accessories for my Jeep. So, I can do a search for "Jeep", and find all sorts of Jeep related things. The ads include the official Jeep site, a local dealer, a variety of other dealers and some accessory sites. Interestingly, the search results themselves have official Jeep sites as the top two results. I would say that 95% of the time, doing a search for a company or product name brings that up as the very first search result. And when it doesn't bring that up, it's often because either there's no official website or the official website is not very well made. Don't fix what's not broken. A search engine’s purpose is to give you a variety of results so that you can find the information you want. It’s not meant to give you the single result because a company paid to be that result.

Another issue that I see… I own a Jeep Wrangler. There are several companies that make accessories for my Jeep. So, I can do a search for “Jeep”, and find all sorts of Jeep related things. The ads include the official Jeep site, a local dealer, a variety of other dealers and some accessory sites. Interestingly, the search results themselves have official Jeep sites as the top two results. I would say that 95% of the time, doing a search for a company or product name brings that up as the very first search result. And when it doesn’t bring that up, it’s often because either there’s no official website or the official website is not very well made.

Don’t fix what’s not broken.

]]> By: Voice of Utah http://peteashdown.org/journal/2007/04/17/curiouser-and-curiouser/comment-page-1/#comment-30396 Voice of Utah Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:21:49 +0000 http://peteashdown.org/journal/?p=121#comment-30396 From the consumer perspective, I'm kind of insulted by what appears to be an underlying assumption by legislators (aka Overstock.com) that we are too dumb to distinguish between, say, an ad for or article about Xmission vs. an ad by one of Xmission's competitors. If I type in Xmission, as a consumer I'm often glad that my search produced not only items about my search term, but also related ads that I might not have thought of. Isn't "better than Xmission" a legitimate form of comparative ad? From the consumer perspective, I’m kind of insulted by what appears to be an underlying assumption by legislators (aka Overstock.com) that we are too dumb to distinguish between, say, an ad for or article about Xmission vs. an ad by one of Xmission’s competitors. If I type in Xmission, as a consumer I’m often glad that my search produced not only items about my search term, but also related ads that I might not have thought of. Isn’t “better than Xmission” a legitimate form of comparative ad?

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