May 2000 vol2 What's the Buzz? NEW SEARCH ENGINES ENTER THE FRAY Among the exhibitors at last month's Internet World were a slew of new search engines, all vying for Internet marketers' attention and money. Here's a rundown of the search engines, what they say makes them special, and what they offer marketers. Mamma.com, which bills itself as "The Mother of all Search Engines," is a meta search engine that returns results from the major search engines and numerous ecommerce databases. Claiming 4.5 million unique users per month, Mamma.com offers advertising on its site. Websites can also add its search functions to their sites in various ways. Mamma.com's affiliate program pays $.03 for each search that originates from an affiliate's site. Echoing its tagline, Mamma.com's presence at Internet World was huge, too, with big banners hung throughout the convention center. PlanetClick.com bases its search results on consumer rankings; sites that rate highest with consumers show up at the top of search result lists. Sites listed on PlanetClick.com are submitted, rated and reviewed by consumers. Marketers can advertise on PlanetClick.com to reach what it says are discriminating consumers. Ecommerce sites can become members of PlanetClick.com's Marketplace, which it says will include the "top shopping destinations on the Internet." The Marketplace will also be presented according to consumer rankings, giving ecommerce sites "unique credibility," according to PlanetClick.com. Oingo says its meaning-based technology returns search results that traditional text-based search engines can't match. For example, if a consumer entered "shopping for fishing gear," other search engines would first return sites containing all three words, then sites with two of the three words. Oingo, on the other hand, returns sites that match the three concepts, such as sites about "buying fishing equipment online,"fishing equipment retail shops" and "gifts for fishing enthusiasts." Oingo offers its search technology to websites in various formats. SmartEngine is a meta search portal "specifically tailored to a more intelligent audience." SmartEngine says it delivers these goods with a convenient SmartGuide directory of websites and a "simple, uncluttered layout for easy navigation." It offers news headlines and services such as free Web-based email, free Internet access and free audio players and tuners. SmartEngine is formalizing its advertising rates and its plans to let webmasters add its search functions to their websites. Information: http://www.smartengine.com PUTTING A BRAND ONLINE This week we republish an article profiling The Sharper Image's efforts to move its offline brand online. The article also includes some real-world marketing tips that the company learned when it moved online. Also this week we cover what Forrester Research says are the challenges ahead for ecommerce sites faced with dropping numbers of online shoppers. Moving Your Brand Online: How Sharper Image Did It","This article was originally run in March 2000 volume 2 TIME FOR SITES TO DELIGHT NEARS Dropping numbers of new online shoppers will force companies to shift their focus to getting existing customers to keep buying, according to a report from Forrester Research Inc. by Joseph L. Butt Jr. His report, "The Web Peak Passes--The Fight to Delight Begins," says the number of new online shopping households will peak this year at 11 million, and drop to 2.6 million by 2004. The result will be online shoppers who are jaded, and companies scrambling to distinguish themselves to these consumers. Customer service expectations will rise to include cross-channel presence, personalization, package tracking, recommendation engines, configurators and call centers. Forrester says that to get existing customers to keep buying, online companies will: Measure and improve the consumer experience on their websites, based on the consumer's perspective. Manage customer relations by collecting and analyzing data from all customer interactions. Mine all customer data to identify profitable customers.