AskJeeves denounces paid inclusion

[foetusized]

Article from CNet: (http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5168805.html) "AskJeeves will stop accepting advertiser payments for inclusion in its searchable Web database, a move to draw competitive lines between it and Yahoo's new search engine."

[ihelpyou]

Yes. Very good move by Ask. I'm sure MSN will want to do the same thing. They already had enough of the same fiasco with LookDumb and got rid of them.

AskJeeves, MSN, and Google are probably rolling with laughter in the streets at YahooLdumb, I mean Yahoo.

[ihelpyou]

How revealing is this to be said by a major search engine?

After much testing of paid inclusion the company found that it can negatively sway search results—producing more commercial and irrelevant lists of Web sites, Lanzone said. Ultimately, that hampers the search experience, he said.

"We're never going to mix church and state again," Lanzone said.

AskJeeves' move comes on the same day that Yahoo unveiled its own for-fee search-inclusion service. It also helps back up suspicion in the industry that such services can sully query results that many Web surfers look to as unbiased guidance to the Web.
Yahoo can spin all it wants, but facts are facts.

And this:

"The FTC said late last year that it is still watching the industry closely for proper disclosure when it comes to paid inclusion."

[srikanthsh]

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AskJeeves will stop accepting advertiser payments for inclusion in its searchable Web database
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They had to do this few months back. a little late. but, correct step.

[Bernard]

Excellent news. Now if they will just stop framing results and do a better job of crawling/indexing....

[torfig]

Ask Jeeves will maintain a separate inclusion program, Site Submit, which lets advertisers submit their sites to be crawled for an annual fee. Site Submit Web addresses are checked and updated weekly. Ask Jeeves charges $18 to $30 per URL.

Does this mean that only commercial sites have to pay for inclusion or is this Site Submit something different?

[Melaniea]

Yay!!! I knew this day would come! :p :cheers:

[Warren]

Hi everyone,

Ask Jeeves has ceased it's Index Express (Trusted Feed) program.

The single URL, flat fee paid inclusion (Ask Jeeves Site Submit) is still available, from the Ask.com website. This is a 12 month subscription to the Teoma index and may - at some point in the future - include the new distribution of the aquired companies.

Regards

Warren

[Webmaster T]

IMO, it isn't co-incidence that Ask releases this shortly after Yahoo! announces it is doing what they rejected as producing bad result sets.