Favored placement
Encyclopedia
Favored placement is the practice of preferentially listing search engine results for given sites. It is also known as pay for placement
but this term usually refers to advertisements that appear along with relevant search results while favored placement affects the order of actual search results.
One of the earliest companies to use favored placement was Open Text Corporation
for its Open Text Index search engine in 1996. However, the practice was met with complaints from consumers, and Open Text abandoned the idea within a few weeks.
In February 1998 GoTo.com, a project of Idealab
, started using favored placement. The search engine ranked web sites depending on how much they are willing to pay to be listed at the top for a search term under a real-time competitive bidding process. Unlike Open Text, GoTo.com was more successful that after five months, more than a thousand sites were paying for favored placement. Yahoo!
acquired GoTo.com (which was renamed Overture Services, Inc. at the time) and the service became Yahoo! Search Marketing
.
As part of the Google-AOL deal in 2005, Google
agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site.
Benjamin Edelman, an assistance professor at Harvard Business School, claims that Google has "hard-coded" bias in the algorithm it employes to generate its OneBox results which are shown usually at the top when a query can be answered quickly or a direct link can be given. Edelman, states that in such cases, Google services such as Google Finance
receive preferential listing over more popular finance sites such as Yahoo! Finance
. However, Barry Schwartz, CEO of RustyBrick, points out that OneBox results are not organic and therefore should not been viewed as algorithmic.
Pay for placement
Pay for placement, or P4P, is an Internet advertising model in which advertisements appear along with relevant search results from a Web search engine. Under this model, advertisers bid for the right to present an advertisement with specific search terms in an open auction...
but this term usually refers to advertisements that appear along with relevant search results while favored placement affects the order of actual search results.
One of the earliest companies to use favored placement was Open Text Corporation
Open Text Corporation
OpenText Corporation Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. As Canada's largest software company, it produces and distributes computer software applications designed to enable Enterprise content management solutions for large corporations across all industries....
for its Open Text Index search engine in 1996. However, the practice was met with complaints from consumers, and Open Text abandoned the idea within a few weeks.
In February 1998 GoTo.com, a project of Idealab
Idealab
Idealab is a business incubator based in Pasadena, California.-History:Idealab was founded by Bill Gross in March 1996...
, started using favored placement. The search engine ranked web sites depending on how much they are willing to pay to be listed at the top for a search term under a real-time competitive bidding process. Unlike Open Text, GoTo.com was more successful that after five months, more than a thousand sites were paying for favored placement. Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
acquired GoTo.com (which was renamed Overture Services, Inc. at the time) and the service became Yahoo! Search Marketing
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Yahoo! Search Marketing is a keyword-based "Pay per click" or "Sponsored search" Internet advertising service provided by Yahoo!.Yahoo began offering this service after acquiring Overture Services, Inc....
.
As part of the Google-AOL deal in 2005, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site.
Benjamin Edelman, an assistance professor at Harvard Business School, claims that Google has "hard-coded" bias in the algorithm it employes to generate its OneBox results which are shown usually at the top when a query can be answered quickly or a direct link can be given. Edelman, states that in such cases, Google services such as Google Finance
Google Finance
Google Finance is a website launched on March 21, 2006 by Google. The service features business and enterprise headlines for many corporations including their financial decisions and major news events. Stock information is available, as are Adobe Flash-based stock price charts which contain marks...
receive preferential listing over more popular finance sites such as Yahoo! Finance
Yahoo! Finance
Yahoo! Finance is a service from Yahoo! that provides financial information. It is the top financial news and research website in the United States, with more than 23 million visitors in February 2010, according to comScore....
. However, Barry Schwartz, CEO of RustyBrick, points out that OneBox results are not organic and therefore should not been viewed as algorithmic.