|
|
|
Top Search Engine Players at a Glance
Search Engine Marketing, Oct 1 2002
|
|
|
ALTAVISTA
AltaVista Co., Palo Alto, CA
www.altavista.com
Search engine with its own crawler and directory content from LookSmart.
PAID INCLUSION Express Inclusion (under 500 URLs): $39 for first
URL, $29 each for URLs 2-10, $19 per URL thereafter. Automatic daily refreshes
(weekdays only). Six-month basis. Trusted Feed (more than 500 URLs): Cost
per click (CPC) basis, around 25 cents to 35 cents depending on category
and URL volume. Weekly refreshes.
PAID PLACEMENT Sponsored links from Overture. The first link in the
“Sponsored Matches” section is often sold by the AltaVista sales team on
a cost per thousand (CPM) basis. |
BUSINESS.COM
Business.com, Santa Monica, CA
www.business.com
B-to-B directory. Distributes search results to other sites such as Business
Week, the Financial Times, Inc., Fast Company, CNET, Primedia publications
and others.
PAID INCLUSION $99 a year for a basic company listing. Up to four
additional links with each site submitted.
PAID PLACEMENT Offers featured placement of company description within
business directory and search results on CPC basis by keyword. By rate card
rather than bidding process. Rates start at 40 cents CPC. |
DMOZ
OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT (ODP)
Netscape Communications Corp., Mountain View, CA
www.dmoz.org
Directory managed and compiled by volunteer editors. Owned by Netscape (and
thus AOL Time Warner). Does not accept ads. Good to submit to because it
provides directory listings to Google, AOL, Netscape, AskJeeves, HotBot,
Lycos, AT&T Worldnet and hundreds of other specialty portals. Has stricter
inclusion policies for merchant sites than the commercial directories.
PAID INCLUSION None.
PAID PLACEMENT None. |
FAST
Fast Search and Transfer ASA, Oslo, Norway
U.S. headquarters, Wellesley, MA
www.fastsearch.com
Search technology. Powers Lycos. Also has a site for demonstrating its search
technology, AlltheWeb.com.
PAID INCLUSION PartnerSite (fewer than 500 URLs): subscription basis,
$34 per year for first URL, $16 thereafter. Guaranteed 48-hour refresh.
PartnerSite Direct (more than 500 URLs): CPC basis, about 25 cents per click.
Guaranteed 48-hour refresh.
PAID PLACEMENT None. |
|
FINDWHAT.COM
FindWhat.com,
Ft. Myers, FL
www.findwhat.com
Pay-for-placement links provider to over 200 sites, including CNET’s Search.com,
Excite, Webcrawler, MetaCrawler, Dogpile, ZDNet and Go2Net.
PAID INCLUSION None
PAID PLACEMENT CPC basis, fixed bidding.
Required deposit: $25.
Minimum bid: 1 cent.
|
GOOGLE
Google, Mountain View, CA
www.google.com
The leading search engine. Uses its own search technology. Index updated
every four weeks. Powers Web search at 130 sites, including Yahoo!, AOL,
Netscape, EarthLink and AT&T Worldnet.
PAID INCLUSION None.
PAID PLACEMENT Premium Sponsorship (“sponsored links” at top of results
page): CPM model; minimum spend: $10,000 over three months; syndication:
premium sponsorships are not syndicated.
AdWords Select (“sponsored links” appear on right side of results page):
CPC basis; auto bidding; startup cost: $5; minimum bid: 5 cents; minimum
monthly spend: none; syndication: AdWords Select paid links also appear
on other sites. |
INKTOMI
Inktomi Corp., Foster City, CA
www.inktomi.com
Major crawler-based search technology used by other sites. No search site
of its own. Pioneered pay for inclusion. Powers MSN, Overture, HotBot, many
others.
PAID INCLUSION Search Submit (up to 1,000 URLs): $39 for first URL,
$25 for each additional, per year. 48-hour refresh.
Index Connect (more than 1,000 URLs): Usually done with an XML Feed.
CPC basis, based on subject matter. Refresh based on customer needs (can
be less than 48 hours).
PAID PLACEMENT None. |
LOOKSMART
LookSmart Ltd., San Francisco
www.looksmart.com
Pay-per-click directory. Has own search site (main results from own editors,
secondary results from Inktomi). Powers others such as AltaVista, AskJeeves,
iWon, Inktomi, InfoSpace Network, MSN.
PAID INCLUSION Small Business Listings - Setup fee: $49 per
site. CPC: Flat 15 cents. Minimum spend: $15/mo. Minimum account deposit:
$45. Limit one listing per URL.
Large Business Listings - Setup fee: negotiated. CPC: category pricing/rate
card. Minimum spend: $2,500/mo. (for full service from account rep; $2,500
for both paid inclusion and paid placement). No limit on number of listings.
PAID PLACEMENT Sponsored Listings - Market-priced, flat model.
Minimum spend: $2,500/mo. (for full service from account rep; $2,500 for
both paid inclusion and paid placement). |
LYCOS
Terra Lycos, Barcelona, Spain
U.S. headquarters, Waltham, MA
www.lycos.com
A directory (main results from DMOZ) and search engine (powered by FAST
and also its own spider).
PAID INCLUSION InSite Select (for smaller companies): Initial
membership fee $18. Annual subscription per URL per year $12.
InSite Enterprise (for larger companies): CPC basis. 48-hour refresh.
InSite Pro: Includes both paid inclusion and the search tool for
your site. Starts at $189 a month.
PAID PLACEMENT Sponsored links from Overture. CPC advertising via
InSite AdBuyer; opening account balance: $50; minimum bid: 5 cents. |
OVERTURE
Overture Services Inc., Pasadena, CA
www.overture.com
Formerly GoTo.com. Pioneered paid-placement search. Provides paid listings
to Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, InfoSpace, AltaVista, others. Own site also includes
Inktomi results.
PAID INCLUSION May be included with Inktomi’s results at Overture’s
site.
PAID PLACEMENT Bidding system on CPC basis. Auto bidding, also has
fixed bidding.
Minimum bid: 5 cents.
Minimum spend: $20/mo.
Minimum deposit: $50. |
SPRINKS
Sprinks, New York
www.sprinks.com
A pay-for-placement search engine owned by About.com, a Primedia company.
Offers sponsored links both on appropriate content pages at sites such as
About.com’s GuideSites, iVillage, Earthlink and Gurl.com (“ContentSprinks”)
and according to keywords on search sites such as CNET, Dogpile and Mamma.com
(“KeywordSprinks”).
PAID INCLUSION None.
PAID PLACEMENT Fixed bidding process.
Minimum bid: 5 cents on keywords, 20 cents on GuideSites.
Minimum account deposit: $50.
Minimum spend: $10/mo. (typically). Invoice customers must spend at least
$3,500 (for less, use credit card). |
YAHOO!
Yahoo! Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
www.yahoo.com
Both human-edited directory (the first Web directory) and spider-based results
from Google (“Web Page Matches”).
SITE SUBMISSION Business Express: $299 per year nonrefundable charge
to be considered for inclusion in the directory. Inclusion not guaranteed.
PAID PLACEMENT Sponsored matches provided by Overture. |
|
© 2008,
Primedia Business Magazines and Media, a PRIMEDIA company.
All rights reserved. This article is protected
by United States copyright and other intellectual property laws and may
not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed, redisseminated, transmitted,
displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any medium
without the prior written permission of PRIMEDIA Business Corp.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
