The Internet and the Small Man

The introduction of the World Wide Web was an enormous step for mankind, a step not seen since Neil Armstrong sullied the surface of the moon. The idea behind the WWW now coming across as a veritable information highway were documents, data and information can be rapidly sent and accessed by millions the world over, the poor and the rich alike. The possibilities for further growth are enormous, the systems are available and in-place for rapid expansion yet the system is stagnating and it is very possible that people will soon turn away! The average person seeking information may well return to the old-fashioned library and the good old book to find the information that they require, if the face and image of the WWW is not altered very soon and in-line with customer demand.

The ability of a surfer to gain information from the Internet is enormous, but the information received is increasingly becoming that which a paying body prescribes and thus is advertisement biased or pointed towards the end purchase of a product. Hotels advertise a city or holiday resort with the point of view of potential tourists coming to stay. A detailed description of moon cakes in Taiwan although complete and detailed would certainly be with the aim to make people buy some from the store hosting the description involved.

To locate information on the Internet most users will typically use a search engine! The information is out there, the problem is to find it within a reasonable amount of time! To use 'moon cakes' for example; typing these words into a search engine may well bring up 100 shops selling them, thirty bookshops advertising books on the subject, a fee-based articles service with articles on the topic, 659 discussions that make little sense on the topic, 349 references to moon cakes on porn sites, adult sites and school chatboards and right at the end of a very long list will be the free, the simple description and without-catch information that the user was looking for in the first place.

If for example a request was entered for "travel tales on the sea" many, possibly thousands of choices will appear in return. Number one in the pole position will probably be Amazon.com who feel certain that anybody looking for a story would probably find it amongst their collection - naturally obtainable at a price. The next on the list might be Ebay who feel that certain travel products might appease the searcher or it might be goarticles.com an articles selling service who would assume that 'travel tales of the sea' would be somebody looking to buy such from them. Certainly each and every result on the first page would point a surfer towards large companies who are selling an item of one sort or another, or towards a pron site becasue simply put they appear everywhere. The user though may in fact just want to read some 'Travel Tales of the Sea' without having to fork out cash or to issue his/her credit card information over the Internet.

In the bowels of the search results in pages that are covered in dust will reside some very comprehensive and useful websites, eg: SeaDolby.Com a website that is filled with free and in-depth Travel Tales of the Sea. The possibility of any user keeping interest long enough to get to this web site listing is minimal and long before it is reached the user has either fallen asleep or entered another search on a different note. In short, the average user does not get past the first page, and probably not past the first three offerings before losing complete interest, e.g. amazon.com, ebay.com and goarticles.com

Although, not-for-profit informational web sites are many and filled with amazing and detailed info, these sites ability to gain attention on the world stage is difficult unless money is poured in to boost their ratings and rank positions on the search engine results. Nowadays many search engines have entered the pay-per-click arena with companies putting forward money to buy keywords that will most likely be used to boost their website. Some company buys the keyword "Travel" and this word is then basically lost forever to the lone free-for-all info site who cannot afford to pay money to boost their popularity.

The art of advertising and paying for positions on search engines is only available to the sites that can afford the exorbitant fees. Should a lone site owner who has built his site-up decide to fork out of his own pocket the money to boost his ratings this will only be achieved on one or two search engines or directories and the amount required to compete with the mega-sites is far beyond any hobbyist can afford. Naturally the ability to submit ones site on free inclusion pages and directories is available but as the webmaster and author behind SeDolby.Com found out, so much energy and time was spent on advancing the ratings of his site that not enough time was given to the writing of 'travel tales of the sea', which of course is the basis and sole point behind the website in the first place.

Large for profit websites can afford to hire web-orientated staff to control, advertise and spend time on boosting the rankings of their particular website. Single owner for profit websites can afford to pay marketing specialists and to buy keywords at exorbitant rates. The lone not-for-profit website owner can either spend all day and all week controlling and submitting his site to the thousands of ever changing search engines and directories and suffer from a serious loss of updated content or place emphasis on building up content and never have a visitor to his portal.

Many other factors go towards reducing the effectiveness of the individual website than just search result rankings. Many single website owners operate outdated and very slow computers, use old or outdated software and only perform on odd occasions when not playing with their children or busy at their real job. Many other free info sites have found that subscribing to various lists to boost their rankings has in-fact reduced them to near invisibility. Google and now other search engines condemn sites for using link pages that they themselves do not agree with, so by simply subscribing or joining one of these sites Google may drop the PR (page rank - a google method of ranking each and every website it crawls) of the website involved. It is also impossible for the lone not-for-profit website to keep up with ever changing trends and policies. Where payment is made for a lifetimes inclusion in a search engine, the next year may see the demise of this particular engine or its partnering up with another - thus the lifetimes inclusion becomes null and void and to prevent being dropped from the listings another fee is required - read the small print, the very, very small print that is!

Other means to increase visibility are often initiated by offering advertising space to companies like Google, Barnes and Noble or other directories or affiliates. This can result in a slight income for websites (The SeaDolby.Com website earned a grand total of 40 US dollars last month) but never enough to afford pole placement on search engine results or to purchase keywords. It is also against the grain for many free-info website owners to have to place advertisements on their websites, as not only is it taking up valuable space it detracts and reduces the free effect of the content within. Furthermore, should a website choose one companies advertising it may boost their rankings within one search engine but equally so reduce it in another's e.g. allowing Google advertising space on an index page may increase the page rank in Google but seriously reduce it in Yahoos search results and possible exclusion from the Yahoo Directory.

From the point of view of an Internet User in search of free and not-for-profit biased information he/she does not want to see endless websites where a visa card is required. It would be very nice to see the advancement of such directories like the old Zeal.com (who have now shut-up shop in favour of Looksee a paid for listings directory) who divide their listings into those for profit and those who generally provide valuable and non-profit orientated information.

Directories abound whose content is managed by volunteers, the Open Directory Project being the most famous. But sites such as SeaDolby.Com have found to their detriment that trying to get noticed in amongst the debris found in these directories is not easy. SeaDolby.Com was originally listed as a Personal website in the boating category but over time the emphasis and content of the website has evolved to become a general travel website based upon articles as the content. It has though proved impossible to change the location of the site in the Dmoz directory to a travel listing rather than a boating listing - nobody is there to talk to.

If at all possible and to prevent users who are sick of being asked for their credit card information or being given 30 different porn sites upon entering 'Travel Tales of the Sea' into a search engine, it would be nice to see a shift in emphasis in the way that the search engines operate their listings.

Certainly the idea of switching on a computer and being faced with two choices, one for sites that are-for-profit and one that points towards not-for-profit sites would be a dream come true. To enter in a search request and to not find amazon.com or ebay.com in the first few results would put cheer to any searchers hopes of finding what he wants. And maybe in this way a true exchange of information may be facilitated and the possible mass exodus of searchers back to the public library for information may be halted. Although it wouldn't be a bad thing really!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.Com
September 2004