Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The Lone Ronin: Banned by Google:
"Let us suppose, for a moment, you are a small company (like kozoru) and you've figured out a way to take results from another search engine (like, say, Google) and run them through your own statistical approach and do the following:
1. Keyword search their system
2. Grab 100-200 results
3. Parse the pages (all of them) from the results in #2
4. Provide 1-3 "answers" to your results
Now, let us suppose these results are more authoritative, more relevant and better (according to 120 random people who test the system) than the results from the search engine.
Now, let us suppose that you have shown those results to the search engine and they were mostly excited about what you were doing, but couldn't decide how or if your results were able to be monetized -- after all, less results means less space for ads and so forth.
Then, out of nowhere, you were suddenly banned from using their system to show them how you make search better.
Well, that exact scenario was my Christmas present from Google. It makes very little sense to me because other "meta search" systems (Brainboost, Dogpile, etc.) all do the same thing and for far more users.
Before you get too upset, remember that the only people who ever saw this system were Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other partners we were speaking with after the Web 2.0 conference. This wasn't a generally open (or available) system and there were less than 6 companies with access to the results, including kozoru. And remember, no one - other than Google - has ever banned us or even hinted at banning us for this limited-use, demo-only system.
This seems no different than 37 Signals "Making Google Better" web mash-up.
And, all I wanted was a a phone call..."
"Let us suppose, for a moment, you are a small company (like kozoru) and you've figured out a way to take results from another search engine (like, say, Google) and run them through your own statistical approach and do the following:
1. Keyword search their system
2. Grab 100-200 results
3. Parse the pages (all of them) from the results in #2
4. Provide 1-3 "answers" to your results
Now, let us suppose these results are more authoritative, more relevant and better (according to 120 random people who test the system) than the results from the search engine.
Now, let us suppose that you have shown those results to the search engine and they were mostly excited about what you were doing, but couldn't decide how or if your results were able to be monetized -- after all, less results means less space for ads and so forth.
Then, out of nowhere, you were suddenly banned from using their system to show them how you make search better.
Well, that exact scenario was my Christmas present from Google. It makes very little sense to me because other "meta search" systems (Brainboost, Dogpile, etc.) all do the same thing and for far more users.
Before you get too upset, remember that the only people who ever saw this system were Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other partners we were speaking with after the Web 2.0 conference. This wasn't a generally open (or available) system and there were less than 6 companies with access to the results, including kozoru. And remember, no one - other than Google - has ever banned us or even hinted at banning us for this limited-use, demo-only system.
This seems no different than 37 Signals "Making Google Better" web mash-up.
And, all I wanted was a a phone call..."
Comments:
Post a Comment
