They've Got You by the Bits

There's a piece in today's NY Times (Business Section) about a company that sells greeting cards on line.  According to the article, the business has a team that analyzes and adjusts  (thanks for not using the O word) the strategy for the  company's "search ads".

For businesses that can't afford a strategy team, here's some free information.

1. Any garden variety search engine can find a literal phrase (e.g. "they've got you by the bits") and the number of results can be proportional to the content crawled.

2. Any garden variety search engine can do a good job of ranking results when the number of results is low.  For example, a Google search for  "they've got you by the bits"  returns the most relevant results on the first page. Because there are only 2 results. It may be counter intuitive, but  "needle in a haystack" searches are the easiest to present.

3. A common method for prioritizing search results involves popularity (e.g. how many people choose a result, how many people link to the content). That type of prioritization can tend to be self-fulfilling. Results become relevant because of their perceived relevance. And relevance can even be spammed. That's what the art of "search engine optimization" is often about.

4. Some search engines provide a means around all of that by allowing people to bid for placement. Yes, it's not necessarily placement in the result set.  But from a user experience point of view  it may as well be.

5. The type of search engines described in 4 (above) have become gatekeepers in a marketplace where "presence" is the only competative advantage. They've got you by the bits.

End of Strategy.

(And now, perhaps there will be three results).
__________

The importance of presence can lead to a nostalgic invocation of the old marketplace, where every merchant had a stall. But in that case, a shopper could touch the wares (quality) and shoppers could become loyal to a favored merchant (brand).  That certainly doesn't seem to have been the case with the company that's profiled in The Times. Here's a link:

"The Science of Managing Search Ads",  NY Times 12-22-09

The increase in the use of social media may bring things a bit closer to the original marketplace. But beware the mobs.

Added  12-28-09. Similar thoughts about Google in today's NY Times (Op Ed):
"Search, but You May Not Find", Adam Raff
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28raff.html