Steven Marder: and they are looking at their metrics and data around search and realizing that Google and Yahoo are in it to acquire users and drive traffic to their destinations
SM: and they also realize that their users are not using the search box much
Wendy Boswell: well mostly because it doesn't work really well. Site search is a major pain in the patoot.
SM: one answer is that there is no value or differentation in using a Yahoo search box on Game Revolution.....
SM: gives you the same results as Yahoo.com
WB: right
SM: agreed....site search does not work very well
SM: part of the reason is technology and structure of data etc
SM: the other key part is that most sites have lots of content but cannot answer every query
SM: so many times you get "No Results"
SM: what a horrible user experience
WB: exactly...and users have a billion other sites that they can quickly go to
SM: then the user leaves and goes straight to Yahoo or Google
SM: exactly
SM: so, what we are offering them is a way to fully satisfy their users use of search
SM: whether it drives traffic to their own content or content on other sites
WB: nice
SM: end user satisfaction, reinforces brand
WB: what kind of conversions have you seen or heard about with this?
SM: AND now they can participate in the monetization
SM: our data suggests that with our platform (search box and what's hot), we help the publisher drive 3-5x query traffic and 3x revenue growth
SM: short term
WB: dang!
SM: long term.....should be bigger and better
SM: now you give users a reason to use the search on publishers sites
SM: and collaborate on the results
SM: but all passively
WB: another way to foster community
SM: exactly
SM: that's what is so powerful...
SM: it gives the community another way to work together, drive value for the community
SM: and the publisher is faciliating/ moderating
WB: kind of a "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours" mentality
SM: we like to look at as win-win-win
SM: end users win
SM: publishers win
SM: and advertisers win as they get better targeted interactions with their target customers
WB: that's my next question-for marketers, SEO folks, etc., this is a pretty nice opportunity.
SM: it's interesting, we believe that long term, being able to buy the keyword "strategy" in the gaming vertical will drive higher CTR and conversion and rev for all in the supply chain
SM: so for us, its about providing value to all participants in the supply chain
SM: and we do not charge anyone anything upfront....we work on revenue share basis only
SM: because we know it works
WB: I agree, and the more targeted ads and publishers and etc. can get, the more click-throughs folks will see
SM: exactly
WB: revenue share basis only - very appealing to a small start up that doesn't have a lot of extra cash to wave around
SM: we make it as easy as possible to start working together
SM: we also offer country specific results and are in over 15 countries now
SM: also, branding is the publishers
SM: we work on "Powered By" model
WB: I saw that nifty toolbar with possible branding too, right?
SM: Yes....the Toolbar is a big opportunity as well
SM: another vehicle for us to provide the personalized community-driven search to our clients
SM: we believe in empowering not only large publishers but all publishers; enabling and empowering publishers (or as we call them --the "rest of the web" (all else other than the big general players Yahoo, Google, MSN Search, AOL, etc) to monetize and deliver personalized search to their communities of users.
Mr. Marder and I chatted for a few minutes longer, but this is the meat of the interview. Look for Eurekster to be coming out with more additions to the personalized and vertical search arena.
