>>That's pretty much a description of what Quarterdeck's WebCompass does (as
>>well as automatically summarize and produce a list of keywords). Please
>>excuse the plug.
>
>Looks offhand like a great product, and I imagine we
>should be seeing more and more such agent-type products.
>
>Especially speaking from an internet-wide systems
>perspective, but also from a product user's perspective,
>I'm concerned about its dependence on the existing
>mega-search engines. First, presumably a lot of
>agents querying the mega-search engines as a backgroud
>task will increase the load on those engines, yes?
Yes, it will. However, if you turn on your WebCompass Agent at night or
configure it to work during off-peak hours (an upcoming feature) that makes
efficient use of the search engines and your own time.
>Also, I assume that you don't copy the advertisement
>of the search-engine page over to your WebCompass GUI.
>This is great for the user, but I wonder if it might
>cause the mega-search engines to somehow identify
>agent queries (say by patterns or volume of usage?)
>and cut them off or otherwise degrade their service.
>If nothing else, I assume that their advertisers would
>want to know what percentage of their business is from
>"eyeballs", and what percentage is from (advertisement-
>oblivious) agents.
>
Actually, WebCompass Personal (the freely downloadable metasearch/summary on
demand tool) _does_ pass through banner ads from the search engines to the
user. Our goal is to cooperate with the search engines on this, as we have
been. In this way, their advertisers get more exposure, not less, from
metasearching. So everybody wins.
Best,
Brian Ulicny
Limbex Corporation
13160 Mindanao Way, Suite 234
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 USA
(310) 309-4281 x4505 (office/vmail)
(310) 309 4282 (fax)
http://www.limbex.com/ (URL)