[Search-l] Short interview with Jeremie Miller

[John McCormac]

jer wrote:
> Alexa has been selling access to this for years, fettered by money.   
> We'll have open access, fettered by the social dynamics of a wiki.

Yes. And Alexa has been banned by many site owners as a result.

>> That's the disturbing part for search engine operators - what is to  
>> stop an MFA using this data to flood search engines?
>  
> Us.

And you will do this how?

> I'm not sure in what secret meeting you were appointed minister of  all 
> small-search-operators, but I've met lots of others and feel bad  for 
> how you're portraying them.  I will only speak for myself though,  I'm 

I take it you are not a member of the illuminati (Small Search Engine 
working group) then? :) Perhaps I am somewhat more vocal than others in 
the small search engine business but I'd guess that there are other 
small search engine operators on the list. I have a lot of respect for 
people in this business who have managed to survive because I know how 
tough it is. Therefore I consider it somewhat patronising that 
Wikiasearch would tell everyone that we should Open Source all our 
expertise, knowledge and data for the financial benefit of Wikiasearch 
and its investors without making it clear that the chief benefactor of 
all this "Open Sourcing" is not the search engine business or the search 
engine users or humanity in general but rather Wikiasearch and its 
investors. Maybe I am being too cynical.

> just trying to do something helpful for the whole search  industry, it's 
> time to evolve beyond your ruthless empires.  Search  is too important 
> to humanity to be left to waste like this.

Tell that to Google. Tell that to Yahoo and Microsoft. Most search 
engines don't set out to become ruthless empires. They become ruthless 
empires when they achieve significant marketshares. But they have to 
survive and grow first. Search is a business.

> It will be interesting, fun and useful I sure hope, and it's not just  
> people, it's a combination of both open source tools/automation *and*  
> people helping to guide/correct it.

But the damage done by the MFAs will be inflicted on other search 
engines. So how does Wikiasearch intend to help repair that damage?

Regards...jmcc
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