24 replies to this topic

[AussieWebmaster]

Okay they are in their last week of inclusion over at MSN but with the loss of listings in Inktomi and Sprinks already, this company looks like it will be hard pressed to climb off the mat.

The saddest part is they have done little to try and save themselves. If I was a stockholder I would be looking for blood.

Apparently the new direction is "The Family Friendly Search Engine"... this is from the inside... can you believe this. They are actually paying corporate level people who have approved this as the new direction of the company.

So it may be time to wave a serious goodbye.... maybe start a pool when they are asked to leave the exchange or when they file Chapter 11.

Now I have to find somewhere else to spend that 3-5k a month...
I like SearchFeed.com but they don't have the volume of traffic, the searchwizz, lookquick, stiffy-search, atomic, deer, etc just all seem to want your money but have little quality traffic to send... anyone want to start a serious traffic exchange program???

It should be an interesting year... first victim LookSmart...

[Jill]

Family friendly search engine...LOL

Goodbye, and good riddance.

Jill

[AussieWebmaster]

Family friendly search engine...LOL

Goodbye, and good riddance.

Jill

True but you knew what you were getting... Ink is another kettle of crap... though I have heard they will allow one doorway page per url.... so I guess I will make unlinked (bot protected via robots.txt and meta tagged) doorway pages to beef it up at Ink... Will even pay for them to get listed!!!

[MakeMeTop]

>though I have heard they will allow one doorway page per url..

Don't believe everything you've heard

I've just taken on a client who has had several $K worth of PFI penalized by INK for doing just that. The result? Having to put a robot.txt exclusion for INK on their existing domains and having to design a new site from scratch just for INK. They were even rejected from having a Trusted Feed due to their previous penalty!

[Trellian]

In most cases wait 3 or so months and ask for a re-review for your client. But what ever you do make sure that all infringements, however minute are removed. As INK will and do perform a through check.

Re doorway pages, submit at your peril, or should I say spend money at your peril.

Cheers
David

[AussieWebmaster]

In most cases wait 3 or so months and ask for a re-review for your client. But what ever you do make sure that all infringements, however minute are removed. As INK will and do perform a through check.

Re doorway pages, submit at your peril, or should I say spend money at your peril.

Cheers
David

Okay... and I have just signed up as an affiliate of Trellian so maybe will have to send you some PI submissions this weekend....
But in general we need a list now for Ink/MSN I know they do not work the same way Google does... what they are looking for has to have a few different elements or they are weighted very different.

[melville7]

Jill - - Have you ever used LookSmart in the UK? You're an administrator - lead by example - be constructive - stop being bitter and spare a thought for all those LOOK employees who've lost their jobs - they ain't all bad! Cheers

[AussieWebmaster]

Jill - - Have you ever used LookSmart in the UK? You're an administrator - lead by example - be constructive - stop being bitter and spare a thought for all those LOOK employees who've lost their jobs - they ain't all bad! Cheers

Wow... it's like the omnipotent LookSmart god came down and made one post and then left.... hold on mate wake up.... some wanker wanting us to feel sorry for the mistakes of LookSmart executive mesmanagement...

hey I feel sorry for the workers... but am more pissed at the people running the company who were that cocky that they did not have contingency plans for loss of major revenues

What about the days and days of work spent on LookSmart listings by SEO people and the business they lost because customers lost SE placement....

[Haystack]

Now they're looking for a new CEO. I nominate Sam from "The Apprentice." Like 'The Donald' said, he's either going to make miracles happen or run a comany into the ground. Sounds perfect for LookSmart at a time like this.

[Jill]

Now they're looking for a new CEO. I nominate Sam from "The Apprentice."

...good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I just read that, Haystack.

Too funny.

Yes, I nominate Sam too! Go Sam...go LookSmart. GO. I said GOOOOO!

Sam will probably be off the show tonight and looking for work anyway.

Jill

[melville7]

Nice contact page - sure it brings you alot of business!

I don't work for Looksmart, I'm certainly not a wanker but one thing I have observed is that Search-Engines do not owe SEO's a living!

Edited by Jill, 23 January 2004 - 07:54 AM.

[MakeMeTop]

The reason for the hostility towards LookSmart is that search engines who accept our money ARE expected to do what they say in return and not change the rules to an entirely different model later on.

I know that LS UK didn't overtly go to the PPC model that LS US did - but they played their own "dirty tricks" on unsuspecting webmasters with a nifty little deal with a certain PPC engine (not Overture). The deal? Quite simple, put PPC listings into the LS UK listings with the LS algo running on them. This meant that a PPC listing which read "Get your xxxxx songs at great prices here. Free newsletter available." would be returned via LookSmart for searches for "free songs" - and the cruncher? When someone clicked on the listing the poor webmaster got charged the highest bid for a keyword they were running on that campaign even though the phrase clicked on was not in their campaign.

Oh, people like me who noticed it got a refund - but people who didn't notice got reamed!

Similarly, a lot of people started getting charged 15 cents per click on their LS UK listings if they were unfortunate enough to have an LS US listing as well. Again, those who found out about it and complained got the situation changed - most, however, didn't bother.

So no tears here for a company that bent every rule possible to screw the unwary.

And don't tell me the staff didn't know what they were doing - nice as they maybe (and indeed are).

I think I speak on behalf of most webmaters who knew what was REALLY going on when I say good riddance! I had to play their game when they were around, now I'm pleased they are fading fast.

[Scottie]

But what does Barry really think...hmnn? So hard to tell...

[AussieWebmaster]

Nice contact page - sure it brings you alot of business!

I don't work for Looksmart, I'm certainly not a wanker but one thing I have observed is that Search-Engines do not owe SEO's a living!

You didn't read the whole sig it is just a test... I could start pushing something else but it is adding a little at a time to the PR and my placement in the engines... I do nothing else for this site so can actually see how things progress purely from sigs!!!

if you read the post again I am actually calling myself a wanker...

As far as the owes a living...
No-one owes anyone a living (well except my ex... I think I owe her a living as the judge said)

But if Time mag was to change next week to a Porn format and I had spent money making ads for the news mag etc... just like the time spent on various forms of submission they have had....

[mcanerin]

Actually, the people the search engines DO owe a living to are the employees who were hired with the expectation that the company was run in a competent, long term and professional manner, and the shareholders who bought shares due to representations by the company.

It's a very low duty, of course, but it does exist. The bottom line is that if you hold yourself out as professional and trustworthy, then don't be surprised when people expect you to hold up to it.

My 2 cents,

Ian