Snap a Difference in Search?

A new commercially oriented search engine meant to compete with
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft re-launched today.

It’s called Snap.com, and it has some ideas about how to play the search game better.

Snap’s most significant differentiation, CEO Tom McGovern told
internetnews.com, is its revenue model. Instead of charging
advertisers by the traditional pay-per-click model used by the big
three, Snap will charge per business action.

McGovern said advertisers love the model, especially because of how
it deals with the click fraud problem.

“Cost-per-action doesn’t have the element of click fraud because if
the traffic doesn’t convert, the advertiser doesn’t pay,” McGovern
said. “Amazon, eBay — they love this model because they only pay when
they generate business.”

Snap also displays its results differently.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft display sponsored results on the right
and algorithmic results on the left. Snap displays only one list on
the left, using the right side of the screen to show users a preview of
a highlighted search result.

In the list on the left, Snap integrates sponsored and
algorithmic results, because, McGovern said, sometimes sponsored
results are the most relevant results.

Snap is the result of Idealab, Internet pioneer Bill Gross’ business
factory.

McGovern said that, in 1998, Gross gave a speech announcing GoTo, which would eventually become Overture. In that speech Gross said that sponsored search results were the way of the future.

He was booed off the stage, McGovern said.

“People said ‘You’re going to make ads look like search results? You can’t do
that with search; you’re going to ruin search,” he added.

But making ads look like search results was a $600 million industry
last year, McGovern said.

Now, he hopes that some of the ideas behind Snap will turn
out profitable.

Google spokesman Brandon McCormick said Google maintains that
separation because “The user experience is incredibly important to
Google, and feedback has consistently shown that users prefer a clear
distinction between natural and paid search results.”

But Internet advertising revenue went up 30 percent in 2005.
Google led the way toward those numbers, selling a product much of the
industry didn’t want to sell eight years ago.

Five years from now, McGovern thinks people will look at the new ideas
behind Snap the same way. But he acknowledges arguments are ahead.

“In some ways it gets into a religious issue. [Google, Yahoo, and
Microsoft] are religious about their user interface. It’s like
separation of church and state,” McGovern said. “But we think that’s
where the industry is going.”