Introduction Page 3

In the past, web site developers were clumsy about how to make their site accessible. Some expected customers to suddenly show up at their sites, almost magically. During the recent e-conomy bust, many companies and investors realized that setting up a successful online business involves more than an expensive e-commerce enabled Web site. Customers somehow had to be found and attracted, and there were few cost-effective ways to turn that trick. Banner ads were the favorite method, but surprisingly, Web consumers found ways to tune them out, either psychologically, visually, or with “pop-up” killer software.

Search engines showed promise, especially since many of them could literally be bought. It was a lovely scenario for big budget advertisers who had been caught off guard by the wily digital consumers armed with a mouse and keyboard.

Search engines had a little fall from grace however, since the results they were serving up were tainted or “canned” results and as well, spammers were getting the better of their search system. They weren’t respecting the real needs of consumers to find the specific things they were seeking. A huge demand for good search results was building but not being met.

Suddenly, actual above the board pay for position services popped up to fill part of the void. Goto, now Overture, began accepting bids for key word searches on their search engine. Soon they were selling their results to Yahoo. That’s when pay for position or pay per click services really started getting respect. Some experts suggested that free search engines would soon disappear. Well that prognosis on the industry was certainly shortsighted.

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