Downloads Killed the Search Engines!

[OldKentucky]

Hey Y'all,

I downloaded a new tool last night, UCmore http://www.ucmore.com- it suggests relevant sites when I surf the web. Quite efficient.

Its a cool product and it got me to thinking, is there going to be a time where between all of the toolbars and add-ons that on site searching will be dead?

I've heard that MSN will be issuing a new search toolbar in their next edition of Internet Explorer Browser which will be launched at the same time as their new search engine.

Google has toolbars, Yahoo has toolbars (and will probably upgrade theirs when they switch to Inktomi), as does AltaVista, FastSearch, and between UCmore , Gurnet, and other similar downloads- This may bring the death of onsite searchign as we know it and PAID SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Harold

I am a man of constant sorrow.

I bid farewell to Old Kentucky![/url]

[Reece]

Alexa and Google are disabled here most of the time, and I use my own toolbar that has a Google ( my choice, I could use wisenut, yahoo, altavista too) search box on it....
I use it to quick jump to the Google results and once on site ramble around, not using my tool bar anymore. I think the tool bars are a way to get the traffic in... a reminder to use that particular search.....
I think the market is saturated and that the technology being added ( free pop up blockers etc) will eventually crown one king....
But then again I like Yahoo companion.....

[markroberts]

I don't know that I would hold my breath for the next MS browser. My understanding is that the court settlement prohibits them from releasing another browser, unless it is embedded in there release of the operating system.

In other words, If you want an updated IE browser, you have to upgrade your operating system. You will not be able to download just a new IE browser.

[cohwill]

Both Alexa and Copernic have been around for quite awhile with the similar sites available. They have not replaced the search engines (and Alexa keeps crashing my machine).

If you want more info on toolbars, take a look at SearchDay's newsletters. Chris Sherman has done a number of articles on them. Dogpile also has a toolbar.

I very much doubt that toolbars will replace the search engines. Many users do not know about thenm, nor how to download the programs.

[swstyles]

Toolbars can't exist without the power of a search engine behind them. So they will most likely co-exist as they have for the last couple of years.

[Conficio]

I think toolbars are the exact oposite of where computer and software are heading.

More and more software programs, that used to be owned, have been turned into a license and are turned into services now. Especially whatever can be done over the internet turns into a service.

Think of the future projects of pervasive computing, grid computing, computational power as a utility(- service) etc. If you want to use some piece of hardware that allows you acces to the internet, you will not have special toolbars installed that do call on a service. Think of the TV, the (video-)telephone, the display in the fridge, your mobile user tablets and personal gear gadgets (PDA, Cell Phone, wearables, ...) as interfaces to the web-based service. These are used by different people and therefore are not able to switch from one user's prefered toolbar to another user's preferences. They are also too limited in resources to store user account information (like a PC does). Unless you integrate this behavior into a personal web-based desktop, you won't see toolbars around for long.

Let me make a prime example: Have you ever updated your google or downloaded a fix (after all news reporters urged you to do so)? How much time do you spend downloading Windows patches/exentions? What a hassle (and expense if you are a dial-up user). Web-services, such as Google fix themself constantly (at least it feels like it).

My five cents worth.

K<o>

[oomwrtu]

I don't have much of an opinion here, but I use the Google toolbar. My semi-computer-illiterate parents have downloaded it also, and they use it all the time. I definitely think that if the toolbars make it, the one that has the best searching base and the most valuable free addons will come out on top.

[tertius]

I don't think toolbars will kill search engines as we know them--the web is so large even the search engines are estimated to have cumulatively indexed only a certain percentage of pages "out there". (I can't find the source but I recall seeing some figure last year estimating 1/2 to 2/3 of all the pages out there on the web are not indexed by the major/general search engines....)

With the varied purposes of web pages, there will always be room for specialized and general search engines, and they will live or die (or be assimilated <grin>) by how they meet the user's needs: which search engines provide the user the most relevant--in the user's view--web search results with the least amount of time spent scanning through the ranked sites to find what the user is looking for.

[jeb]

So far I could see no problem with this prog..Offers real great help when you're looking for that certain specific needled in the internet haystack..

[cbp]

Given the track record of this company installing earlier versions of this crappy parasiteware by stealth, I would not trust them or go near them

CBP