[Search-l] information-revolution.org

[Seth Finkelstein]

On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 10:33:25AM +0200, Dirson wrote:
> If a project aims to beat Google, must it appeal to users' sense of
> justice (fight the monopoly), or must it offer them a cool search
> engine?
> 
> Let's remember that Google didn't spend any buck on marketing.
> There're enough tools on the Internet to spread the existence of a new
> search tool. If it rocks, users are to adopt it.

	Well, while maybe a product which is super-insanely-successful
generates its own marketing, that doesn't mean only super-insanely-successful
products are successes of any sort. That is, marketing can be part of
a moderately successful product. And there's plenty of good search
innovations which don't get much notice (my favorite example here is
clusty.com , which does result clustering, and can really help in
searches which are heavily spammed - I have no connection to it, I
just like it).

	And one reason I believe some search experts might be
underestimating the Wikia-search's chances at a (moderate) success is
that due to Wikipedia's ultrahigh profile, Wikia-search sure doesn't
lack for publicity and marketing! (we must pause here for the
obligatory disclaimer that the Wikia corporation and Wikipedia are
not FORMALLY connected - but my statement is still accurate).

	"Beat Google" is a good marketing hook.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com/
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php