economics? Is that really the question here? ( was RE: [Sigia-l] Re: "Best Bets" the Yahoo way)

[Listera]

"Livia Labate" wrote:

> In Yahoo!'s case, the payment is for a speedier service (being added to the
> list in a timelly manner), not influencing how it ranks.

Before you get to ranking, being in the result set or not is a difference of
100%. On a Tuesday afternoon at 2:47 PM:

If you are an online storefront and you pay and you get listed --> you can
make a sale because you're there and clickable.

If you are an online storefront and you don't pay and you don't get listed
--> you're invisible and you don't get to make the sale.

> It may not seems like a good value for YOUR money, but some folks appear to
> like the service.

I don't know how you reach that conclusion from what I have said so far. I
never said a thing about whether *I* like it or not. Of course, if you pay
in hopes of getting an advantage and you get it, you'll like the service.
Nobody's questioning this. The problem is that the result set is thus gamed
for the benefit of those who pay to be advantaged.

Look, Yahoo has bought last year three of the largest web crawlers that
operate payola programs: AltaVista, Fast AlltheWeb and Inktomi, the largest
payola provider. That's where the impetus for this service comes from. As
David Heller pointed out there are other ways of helping the user, Yahoo
chose the old one: Pay the Piper.

There's no free lunch. Yahoo is selling access for a reason. The reason is
the advantage you get. The user does *not* know this.
  
> Exactly, each business model is made to fit a particular niche. What seems
> to be lost is this whole conversation is the understanding that thinking
> that the service Yahoo! provides for a fee is useless

Arrgh, where does this come from? Who said it was useless? It's useful for
those who pay to be advantaged and Yahoo, of course. After all, bribery
usually benefits the payer and the payee, but we outlaw it.

> or that it is something different makes people's points valid.

There isn't an ounce of originality in this, that's why I've been citing
analogies from politics, medicine, journalism, etc. That's why the Federal
Trade Commission is concerned about this, but given the abysmal record of
this administration in such matters, nobody should hold their breath.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba