Search Engines as Leeches on the Web

[mandy]

Search engines extract too much of the Web's value, leaving too little for the websites that actually create the content. Liberation from search dependency is a strategic imperative for both websites and software vendors.

Recently, however, people have begun using search engines as answer engines to directly access what they want -- often without truly engaging with the websites that provide (and pay for) the services.

There's no doubt that search engines provide a valuable service to users. The issue here is what search engines do to the companies they feed on -- the companies that fund the creation of original information. Search engines mainly build their business on other websites' content.The traditional analysis has been that search engines amply return the favor by directing traffic to these sites. While there's still some truth to that, the scenario is changing.

full article: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search_engines.html

[Kristijntje]

A related article:

There are two problems that tend to happen when companies first start exploring search engine marketing. The first is that they get caught up in pay-per-click adversities and ignore organic search. The second is that they start relying on free search engine traffic and use that as an excuse to cut their budget for other forms of marketing.

Companies that rely solely on pay-per-click advertising fall into the exact trap that Nielsen warns of...a never-ending cycle that requires them to increase their bid, increase their conversion rate to pay for that new bid, increase their bid again and so on. That's because just as your company is working to improve their conversion rates so that they can retain that top position, your competitors are doing the same. Think of it as running a race that never ends.

That's why it's important to avoid thinking of pay-per-click as a race...

full article: http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/006517.html