myspace.com – which search engine?

MYSPACE.COM – Which Search Engine?

From within an article entitled: “What If No One Will Pay For Content?” - (Scott Karp – May 7th, 2006)

http://publishing2.com/2006/05/07/what-if-no-one-will-pay-for-content/

"The following thoughts & observations were made:In a WSJ cyber-dialogue with Vint Cerg, Esther Dyson was channeling Michael Goldhaber and managed to crystalize for me (finally) the key insight of media 2.0:…attention has its own intrinsic value, independent of money. People go on the Web in search of attention; they don’t want to give it as much as get it.This is a blazing, head-spinning insight. In media 1.0, brands paid for the attention that media companies gathered by offering people news and entertainment (e.g. TV) in exchange for their attention. In media 2.0, people are more likely to give their attention in exchange for OTHER PEOPLE’S ATTENTION. This is why MySpace can’t effectively monetize its 70 million users through advertising — people use MySpace not to GIVE their attention to something that is entertaining or informative (which could thus be sold to advertisers) but rather to GET attention from other users. Why is it so appealing to MySpace users to be able to post messages publicly on other users’ sites? Because they can GET attention as a function of GIVING it".

"This make perfect sense in a world of participatory media — the value flow has reversed itself. MySpace can’t sell attention to advertisers because the site itself , HAS NONE. Nobody pays attention to MySpace — users pay attention to each other, and compete for each other’s attention — it’s as if the site itself doesn’t exist".

Bambi Francisco *says in her blog, (when posing the question: “If MySpace had a search engine, wouldn't that ruffle the feathers at Google, MSN and Yahoo?), that:

http://bambi.blogs.com/bambi_francisco/2006/05/myspaceengine.html

< *As I pointed out in a recent column, MySpace is a whole new distribution platform that is changing the face of the Net. In March, MySpace recorded 19.4 billion page views vs. 13.7 billion at Google, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. With MySpace traffic so significant, I had a hunch that major sites like Google and Yahoo might also receive a lot of benefit from that traffic. That hunch was right. Google received 8.2% of its traffic partly from its search tools that appear on pages within MySpace, making the social network the No. 1 source of traffic to Google, according to Bill Tancer of online research firm Hitwise, who retrieved the data for me. >

Walter, Jules: - In explaining his thoughts on the above, says:

”Hitwise captures where the users at MySpace exit and go. To clarify, Hitwise is saying that 8.2% of Google's traffic came from people who were just at MySpace. So, if you are on MySpace and then type in Google in the URL as your next site, you are counted. Nonetheless, there is a significant relationship. Also, the largest exit for MySpace members is Google. Also, about two-thirds of MySpace members surveyed by Nielsen//NetRatings prefer Google as their search engine”.

Myspace.com currently has (inherited) Yahoo (Overture) search installed on it’s site.But there are compelling reasons as for why NWS needs to control it’s own search on it’s own sites. My interest is not, why are the 8.2% heading off to Google, but what are they heading off there, to search for? What is of interest to them, I’d imagine?

Which leads us back to why a "controlling stake" in Looksmart (and from Newscorp's FIM), will be the wise choice and reasons are, as follows.

If a partial (even a white label?) "deal" is negotiated with Google (for search results), myspace.com could now have installed on it's site, the principles of a "FindArticles on/in...." Button.

So, all results would then come from the Google index. Now let's then search for a "popular" search term, American Idol.(And Google has some 51,500,000 for American Idol)

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=FindArticles+on+American+Idol&btnG=Google+Search&meta

Google get to "contextualise" the RHS of this (above) results page, that now contains no less than 80% of Looksmart "options", for any Myspace user to choose from. Now we should move onto one of these Looksmart Verticals, (LookSmart Junior High - Best results for "American Idol" ) and check who the content suppliers for this Vertical happen to be*. (*see below).

http://www.looksmartjrhigh.com/p/search?free=1&qt=American+Idol&x=0&y=0&vcat=cat1

So, the "potential" of having a Myspace.com "user" leaving a NWS site and finishing back at another NWS site (www.idolonfox.com ), now becomes a distinct possibility. And each Looksmart Vertical results page, can all be contextualised, accordingly.

And the thought of a Myspace tool bar download option, (that can now be installed by and for the convenience of, or,) for it"s near on 80M members, could certainly, then further help consolidate NWS's own search offerings (as outlined above) and help them achieve an indirect means of both leveraging "users" and advertisers & at the same time, it may even create "new" habits for those many Myspace members. Maybe some type of incentive (for downloading a toolbar), is all that would be a required.

*I'm also keen on a "content consortium" or, two (maybe more?) that may very well (currently), be taking shape. And, one, that will/could prove to be in the interest of a NWS "controlling stake", in Looksmart. One that has many content source/providers to Looksmart"s F/A's (& it's Verticals) taking 'on board" these very same NWS (site) search results and in effect one, that would then see all involved, sharing both their "content" and their "users", with each other.

:)
LC