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Overture Buys Fast Search
generic-man writes "Hot off the heels of buying Altavista, Overture today announced it would buy Fast Search. Fast Search, a Norwegian company which manages AllTheWeb.com, will get $70 million in cash with up to $30 million in performance bonuses over the next three years. The deal is expected to close by April."
What was that article a few days ago saying that Google is evil because it does all sorts of nefarious things and represents a virtual monopoly in the search engine arena? Not that the arguments held any water, but I'm sure the person who wrote them is rethinking his "monopoly" accusations in light of this.
"For 2003, [Overture] now expects to see revenue of more than $1 billion and earnings per share of 60 cents to 70 cents. Analysts had been expecting the company to report earnings of 91 cents per share on revenue of $1.03 billion."
Wow! Overture has better earnings per share than Microsoft! They've also beaten eBay, which is generally considered one of the most profitable Internet companies. Is pay-for-placement really so valuable that it creates a billion-dollar company? Can someone who understands this business model explain how it's making so much money?
If Overture is truly an Internet-only success story, it bodes well for the rest of us who have jobs that rely on the Internet. More profitable companies mean that the Internet will be taken more seriously and that there will be more Internet jobs, which is always a good thing!
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I mean, if I want the Ferrari, and I've got the dough, I don't get six or seven Chevys and consider myself the coolest kid on the block.
I just tried a few searches at Overture, and every one stacked what looked like product placements at the top of the responses. And in fact this notice introduced the results pages.
It looks as though they're buying the underperforming search sites for their paid customer lists, which they offer to other search sites that take placement graft.
They're not a search technology company. They're a search-result astroturf company. Their business model is selling ad space camouflaged as content.
The internet is not secure as either a medium or a message.
Sounds more like they're trying to bring Altavista back up to a usable level.
It currently takes AV upwards of 6+ months to update indexed pages. They also don't do anything with newly found sites or disappearing sites that that aren't explicitly (re)submitted.
What's the use in that? Google, for one, goes over their entire index for updated/new/missing pages once a month.
All I want is a kind word, a warm bed and unlimited power.
Before Google was started it was assumed that internet search was either "a solved problem or not very interesting". Google proved them wrong; why is it inconceivable that another company could beat out Google now?
.com bubble has burst doesn't mean that everyone should stop exploring viable online business opportunities.
You don't need a bubble to keep you afloat if you've got a useful product and a good business plan. The fact that the
-j
I take it you've never looked at Overture.
Yes, Overture sells paid listings, not relevance, although they do at least check out your site to make sure that the keywords you are registering are germain to your site's content.
Registering with Overture is smart because Overture influences other search engines. Alta Vista has long had a deal with them to take the top three Overture listings and place them above Alta Vista's own results. Even the mighty Google is influenced by Overture.
For example, before my company registered keywords on Overture, we couldn't be found on Google unless you search specifically on our name. Today, there is at least one keyword category where we have the top spot on Google (keywords we registered on Overture), and a number of others where we at least show up in the list.
For businesses that are frustrated with the search engine games, Overture is probably the easiest way to influence them.
Let's ignore, for the moment, the quality of any of the search engines. When I awkgle through the web logs at my company, more than 99% of all the hits from a search engine come from google. There's no evident second place finisher in this race -- There's Google at number one, and then a whole bunch of noise. Now, we don't advertise on Overture (or google, either). What do others see?
Now for the fun part. Every time you click an Overture result, you cause the advertiser to pay Overture. As mentioned at SpamBattle, this is a great way to screw companies that sell spam software or services:
Use the /. effect to bankrupt spammers!
In the longer term the trend will be that as well as having to sort through the normal dross thrown up by search engines, you will also have to swim through a pages stagnated by dodgy companies paying for the privilege to force their unwanted products onto your screen?