I got your SEO right here...

November 16, 2003 1:03 PM

Who gives, who gets... and surprise, Google is on top. I always figured that the search engines had a symbiotic relationship, but playing with this Search Engine Decoder to actually see it is far more entertaining. And, I'd never heard of Overture, but it seems like all the big boys pay them for content. The Decoder is hosted by Search This, which "[provides] search engine optimization and web marketing strategies for the everyday web designer." I guess that's a few of us...
posted by pineapple (12 comments total)

I couldn't find the above mentioned company when I ran a search on google using "search engine optimization". If they can't get their own company ranked how can they help anyone else?
posted by keithl at 1:16 PM on November 16, 2003

Well I'm sure their ranking will improve now they're linked from MetaFilter.
posted by malevolent at 1:53 PM on November 16, 2003

Very cool representation of relative rank. Doesn't tell me anything about absolute rank though.
posted by Hildago at 1:54 PM on November 16, 2003

It really takes some degree of effort to have any interest in search engines and *not* know about Overture.

Potentially, they are Gooogle's nemesis, because they have a prior patent on content-related keyword-driven advertising.
posted by meehawl at 2:42 PM on November 16, 2003

meehawl -- I'll introduce myself: I have absolutely no interest in search engines, but I have an unflagging interest in things I can click on which then do flashy things.

But, your comment made me poke around more. I suppose that Yahoo! bought Overture in order to bolster the google-nemesis factor?
posted by pineapple at 2:49 PM on November 16, 2003

Overture is best know as alltheweb.com The only search service I've found that gives google a run for its money.
posted by skallas at 5:01 PM on November 16, 2003

For a while I thought the principle behind overture was silly: why would a pay for placement model make any sense at all from a search standpoint? After some thought, though, I think it might have some standing if you view information space as a market exchange -- those with valuable content will be able to somehow tranlate that into money, subsidizing a search-hit budget. Information wants to be bought, as it were. The idea may have some merit, and I wonder if some variation on it might not become more important as spammers get better at faking the other two popularity criterion: links and visits.
posted by weston at 9:38 PM on November 16, 2003

weston is onto it.
overture used to be goto.com, it is/was an idealab company. since i worked for citysearch in the salad days i have some friends at over. they, the company that is, is making money like crazy with all this nickel and dime click through stuff. the one time i visited, meeting friends for lunch, i looked and looked for some kind of really tall lucite tube running from floor to floor that contained a continuous stream of small change a tumblin' down. no luck.
posted by asparagus_berlin at 10:37 PM on November 16, 2003

keithl: Google doesn't like search-engine optimization (because they're trying to game the system and make Google's workday more complicated); they have been known to punish SEOs they don't like a lot, which can even affect the SEO's clients. That said, "search engine optimization" is now a popular string, and getting seen amid the fray is easier when you have a shiny web toy.
posted by dhartung at 11:45 PM on November 16, 2003

Overture also owns AltaVista (and, as mentioned, alltheweb.com). These were both fairly recent purchases.
posted by Bryant at 4:44 AM on November 17, 2003

If you are interested in the search engine optimization (SEO) industry, I highly recommend cre8asite forums. There are some very knowledgeable forum moderators posting here about all aspects of SEO.

Many SEOs are up to dirty tricks but the group over at cre8asite seems to have pretty high ethical standards and dispense good advice on a daily basis.
posted by argus at 8:41 AM on November 17, 2003

Thanks, argus. I'm an admininstrator at Cre8asite, and your kind words are very much appreciated.
posted by bragadocchio at 6:54 PM on November 20, 2003