SCN: hmmm

[Doug Schuler]

It is an interesting question -- how are search engines
financed.  Unfortunately (for us) search engines are
in almost all cases *commercial* entities and, hence,
are subject to the same forces as other commercial
entities.   I don't claim to know all the details but
there is evidence of dropping competitor's information
from a search engine's database or of having people pay
to get their information to the top in a query.  Also,
since search engines use private, proprietary classification
systems (unlike public libraries, for example, which use
a public system [like Dewey Decimal] which ALL people can use,
we have little oversight or ability to plug into it.

-=- Doug

But, all of this is more or less irrelvant to SCN.  Having
advertisements support SCN sounds unworkable and almost
totally contrary to our mission and principles.

   ******************************************************************
   *  New Community Networks: Wired for Change     Now online       *
   *               http://www.scn.org/ncn                           *
   *     Give us YOUR insights!     Help write the new edition!     *
   ******************************************************************

On Fri, 25 May 2001, J. Johnson wrote:

> On Tue, 22 May 2001, Doug Schuler wrote:
> 
> > I wanted to add my two cents.
> > 
> > We see far too many ads already and, in my opinion, it's the
> > ads and the commercialization that are killing / will kill the
> > Internet.  If ads are the answer then what the heck is the question!
> 
> The basic question is:  how are "free" services to be financed?
> 
> I think the argument raised in the original article would have been much
> clearer if it had focused more specifically on, say, how are search
> engines to be financed.  E.g., who will pay Altavista's bills?  If not the
> advertisers, then who?
> 
> === JJ =============================================================
> 
> 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * * * * * *
.	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
unsubscribe scn
==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web at: ====
* * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * * * * * *