OptWizard
20-12-2001, 11:03/11:03AM
Say it aint so...NOw MSN has fell into the Overture trap...her eis an article I received about it take a look
MSN Search Testing Paid Listings with a Twist
MSN Search is now including paid listings from Overture in some search
results, but with a "twist" that makes these paid listings more useful
than those served by other major search engines and portals, according to
Bill Bliss, general manager of MSN Search at Microsoft Corp.
"We've always resisted putting Overture results on the main page in the
same way that some of the other portals have done it because they didn't
always give useful results for what the user was looking for," said Bliss.
The case against paid listings, of course, is that they're essentially
advertisements, and only those from advertisers making top bids for
placement are displayed at most major portal sites. For searchers looking
for information, rather than products or services, paid listings often
disappoint.
But not always. "There are actually a lot of cases where Overture
produces really useful and relevant results," said Bliss.
The trick is to find those specific cases where a blend of paid listings
and results ranked according to relevance provide the best overall mix for
the searcher. MSN Search, working closely with Overture, has identified a
number of search terms where Overture results complement MSN's existing
search result set.
For queries using these terms, three Overture-served results appear in a
separate section labeled "sponsored sites" directly below the "featured
sites" listings on a result page. They're also prefaced with bullets,
rather than numbers, further differentiating them from standard search
results.
MSN deserves credit for labeling the results straightforwardly as
"sponsored sites" (though they could have gone further and simply called
them advertising). Next to the sponsored sites heading is an "About" link
that discloses the nature of the results and where they come from.
MSN is treating this selective, hybrid approach to blending paid placement
with computed relevance links as an experiment. "One of the things we're
interested in is do they indeed enhance results," said Bliss. While MSN
and Overture have tested the approach internally, it won't be clear
whether the approach actually works without a large scale tryout.
What kinds of queries trigger blended results? MSN's Bliss declined to
provide specific examples, or to indicate the precise number of search
terms involved, saying the numbers would likely change over time.
"We looked for ones that generally speaking had an evergreen intent.
Other than by trying it there will be no way to know whether Overture
results will appear," said Bliss. He noted that queries where a searcher
was likely looking for both information and products or services were
likely candidates -- travel or industry related terms, for example.
The program is in beta, but a small percentage of searches on the current
MSN Search site return results with the new sponsored listings. You can
also see how they work by searching directly from the MSN Search Beta
site.
It's an interesting approach, and one that seems to have promise for
unifying the best of both worlds of paid placement and algorithmically
calculated relevant results.
MSN is working on a number of improvements to MSN search that are
scheduled to be officially rolled out in early January.
http://searchenginewatch.com/search...sd1220-msn.html
Got to http://beta.search.msn.com/ and see how this works...IMHO I dont like it. NOw this move the search results even down further....Just another Engine with the same top3 results...
MSN Search Testing Paid Listings with a Twist
MSN Search is now including paid listings from Overture in some search
results, but with a "twist" that makes these paid listings more useful
than those served by other major search engines and portals, according to
Bill Bliss, general manager of MSN Search at Microsoft Corp.
"We've always resisted putting Overture results on the main page in the
same way that some of the other portals have done it because they didn't
always give useful results for what the user was looking for," said Bliss.
The case against paid listings, of course, is that they're essentially
advertisements, and only those from advertisers making top bids for
placement are displayed at most major portal sites. For searchers looking
for information, rather than products or services, paid listings often
disappoint.
But not always. "There are actually a lot of cases where Overture
produces really useful and relevant results," said Bliss.
The trick is to find those specific cases where a blend of paid listings
and results ranked according to relevance provide the best overall mix for
the searcher. MSN Search, working closely with Overture, has identified a
number of search terms where Overture results complement MSN's existing
search result set.
For queries using these terms, three Overture-served results appear in a
separate section labeled "sponsored sites" directly below the "featured
sites" listings on a result page. They're also prefaced with bullets,
rather than numbers, further differentiating them from standard search
results.
MSN deserves credit for labeling the results straightforwardly as
"sponsored sites" (though they could have gone further and simply called
them advertising). Next to the sponsored sites heading is an "About" link
that discloses the nature of the results and where they come from.
MSN is treating this selective, hybrid approach to blending paid placement
with computed relevance links as an experiment. "One of the things we're
interested in is do they indeed enhance results," said Bliss. While MSN
and Overture have tested the approach internally, it won't be clear
whether the approach actually works without a large scale tryout.
What kinds of queries trigger blended results? MSN's Bliss declined to
provide specific examples, or to indicate the precise number of search
terms involved, saying the numbers would likely change over time.
"We looked for ones that generally speaking had an evergreen intent.
Other than by trying it there will be no way to know whether Overture
results will appear," said Bliss. He noted that queries where a searcher
was likely looking for both information and products or services were
likely candidates -- travel or industry related terms, for example.
The program is in beta, but a small percentage of searches on the current
MSN Search site return results with the new sponsored listings. You can
also see how they work by searching directly from the MSN Search Beta
site.
It's an interesting approach, and one that seems to have promise for
unifying the best of both worlds of paid placement and algorithmically
calculated relevant results.
MSN is working on a number of improvements to MSN search that are
scheduled to be officially rolled out in early January.
http://searchenginewatch.com/search...sd1220-msn.html
Got to http://beta.search.msn.com/ and see how this works...IMHO I dont like it. NOw this move the search results even down further....Just another Engine with the same top3 results...