Search Panel - Web 2.0

I’m installed amongst the laptop-wielding masses at the Web 2.0 conference. The search workshop has yielded a couple of interesting tidbits thus far.

• Wink launch. A new “user generated” search engine Wink (formerly eBagle) will be kicking off today. The company is taking some of the user-participation concepts in vogue these days — tagging, interactivity, the long tail, user ratings, etc. — and using them in its search engine. It sounds like initially it will be similar to a garden variety search engine, but it will change as users give their input — by rating, tagging or blocking results. Michael Tanne, founder and CEO of Wink, gave the presentation. He didn’t say much about advertising, other than praising ad-support as “what’s fueling a lot of the innovation.” One could see that user interaction might result in improved search results and better targeted advertising. (As an aside, does anyone remember that interactive TV ad company called Wink?)
• Indeed partners with About.com. Probably no surprise to see job classifieds aggregator Indeed.com distributing its listings to the New York Times Company’s About.com, given NYTCo bought a stake in Indeed back in August. Indeed’s ad model: recruiters buy the chance to have their job listings highlighted on the right hand side of the results page. It’s a PPC auction model and ad copy is automatically generated from job descriptions. Interestingly, any publisher can, AdSense-like, display Indeed job ads on their site, sharing revenue with Indeed. (Rather than being targeted by context, ads are targeted by the rules the publisher sets up.)