The Search Engine Wars

The Search Engine Wars
Who's In & Who's Out - Part I
By Merle MCPromotions.com

There have been a lot of changes on the search engine front in the past year. So many that it's hard to keep track of who's still a major player and who isn't in the search engine game. With so many turning to "Pay for Submission and Pay per Click" models, there aren't a lot left that still accept free submissions. And of those that do, it's hard to tell exactly which ones are worth your time.

Let's review the list to see who's still standing, who's charging and who isn't:

1) Yahoo

This is not an engine, but a directory where listings are added by real humans. With over a million listings, Yahoo is considered the largest directory online today. All commercial sites must pay a $299.00 fee to submit to "Yahoo Express" per year. Adult sites must pay $600.00 for submission. Be careful though, -- if they don't like your site they keep your fee. Yes, you heard it right. Even if they don't approve of your site or add it to the directory, they do not refund your submission fee.

Paying Yahoo for submission is not the only way to get listed there. They also pull the top three bid positions from Overture (formerly Goto.com) and display them at the top of the search results pages. Yahoo calls those listings "Sponsor Matches, "and also runs more Overture listings at the bottom of the page, under the heading "More Sponsored Matches."

2) Altavista

Reaches over 45 million visitors worldwide and one of the few still offering free submission. However, inclusion - if you are accepted - can take a while. But you can ensure that your site will be placed quickly by opting for their "Express Inclusion" service. For six months, one URL submission will run you $39.00, with 2-10 URL's for an additional $29.00 each.

Altavista also displays Overture's top 4 bid positions at the top of the search results page, under the heading "Products and Services." These listings include descriptions. And, Altavista runs more Overture results at the bottom of the page. These are just clickable links without descriptions.

3) Google

Still a Net favorite, Google is used more than 150 million times a day for searches. Free submission is still an option. Google also provides results to other engines and directories such as Netscape Search, Yahoo and AOL Search. They recently launched their own "Pay Per Click" program, called "Ad Words Select." This allows you to bid on key phrases or words, and when someone searches for those words, your text ad is shown in the right-hand column on the search results page. For more on this go to: Adwords.Google.com

Ad Words Select will cost you $5.00 and a credit card number to get your site enrolled. Google is also the exclusive provider of sponsored links to AOL Search, pulling the sponsored links from its Ad Words Select Program. The top 3 ads will be displayed as sponsored links on AOL. Netscape will begin displaying Google's Ad Words sponsored links come August of 2002.

4) Inktomi

Provides results to many engines and directories such as Iwon, MSN, Hotbot, and more. Each URL submission will cost you $39.00 per year and only $25.00 a year for each URL thereafter. The benefit of listing with Inktomi is the exposure your site will receive with its search partners.

5) The Open Directory Project

Also known as DMOZ, the ODP is hosted and administered by Netscape Communication Corp. All submissions are reviewed by a human before being added to the directory and each category has what is called an "ODP Editor" who is responsible for that category.

DMOZ provides results to many search partners, such as All The Web, DirectHit, HotBot, Google, Lycos, Altavista, etc. Submission is free, although cumbersome. You'll have to drill down to find the appropriate category to submit to, then click the "add URL" link located at the top of the page.

6) Overture (formerly known as Goto.com)

Solely a Pay Per Click search engine, with Overture you choose key words/phrases that you want your site to appear under and try to outbid the competition for a top billing. The higher you bid, the higher your URL on the search results page. They have a $20.00 a month spending minimum and a minimum bid of $0.05 per keyword/phrase.

The biggest benefit of being listed here is the relationship that Overture has with some of the other major search engines/directories. Basically, if you bid into the top 3 or 4 positions, your site will also enjoy top listings in Yahoo, Altavista, MSN, Lycos, Infospace, Ask Jeeves, CNET and more. Generally, these listings are shown as "sponsored links" at the top of their search results page. Trying to get those top bid positions is well worth it with the type of exposure you'll receive on some of the majors. They recently lost the contract to supply sponsored links to AOL Search, but they do still provide search results for AOL's Europe Net properties in the UK, France and Germany.

7) Excite

Once a major player, Excite now resembles more of a Portal since being bought out a few years ago by @home, which subsequently went bankrupt. Search results are now pulled from Overture and Looksmart. Since you can no longer submit directly to Excite, if you want to be listed, you'll need to open an account with one of the above to make an appearance.

About The Author
Merle operates EzineAdAuction.com, "Where some of the BEST Deals in Ezine Advertising are Made". Buy & Sell Ezine Ads in a live auction setting! Publishers sell off your excess inventory and Buyers pick up some Fantastic bargains. Go now.