My buddy recently created a website that's basically a google custom search. You can find it at www.spakkle.com. Basically the idea is that you can customize the way your google search looks, and then if you click on a sponsored link, he makes money through adcents(?). However, he hasn't been getting a lot of hits. I work as a strategy consultant so naturally I was interested in thinking about how to make it more successful. I know there's a lot of experts on websites on this board, so I'd like to know your thoughts on the following questions: 1. I personally would not use this product. Is it a crap concept? Would other people use it, and if so what's the target demographic? 2. What is the best way to get exposure for a website like this? 3. Finally, how could this site be improved? I'm thinking it is what it is, and if you like the concept you like it otherwise it can't be improved. But still, suggestions might be nice.
Without answering your questions specifically, the problem is that there are a lot better personalization options out there for homepages. Google's own, igoogle, is a thousand times better. So is www.protopage.com your buddies idea is a good one, just not executed very well.
adcents = adsense It could work for a localized version. I would personally have no use for it. Also, I'll write to GOOGLE about making their results table or DIV be the entire width of the screen. Why the eff do they cut my results' paragraphs down to 1/3 my screen size ? Why in the heck did I buy a widescreen monitor, then??
That's great input. Thanks. I guess the idea is that a lot of people have google.com as their homepage (like me). So spakkle would make sense, but I get your point that if they wanted to personalize it, they'd just take the time to personalize igoogle. My buddy's argument is that there's simple ideas like "blackle.com" that nonetheless gets used. Which I think is valid. My only questions is, is there a way to promote a product even if it's not the best.
Blackle is based on the idea that black screens save energy. So they probably got some media attention/followers to it. Internet users don't care about how cute a page looks, they rather want something useful, fast, and gets the job done. Plus, there are just too many of these Google clones.
I think it ends up being in the hybrid land of not simple enough (google, blackle) vs. not useful enough (igoogle, protopage, etc.). Still, I could see it working better if it was executed better. Everything about that site to me screams 1990's internet, from the color schemes to the fonts to everything. He needs to make it look a whole lot "fresher" the funny part is, according to Google, blackle doesn't save any extra energy, though it may have initially. i think at first it was mostly about that, now some people just like black vs. white (kind like Clutchfans Original vs. Dark - a Clutchfans Red, though cool, probably wouldn't get much use)
Thinking about it strategically. Adding functionality doesn't make sense, because there are established competitors that JayZ has pointed out. Revamping the look is easier and can be done. But will that be enough? Again the question is, what's the target market and how to reach it?
Can it return results in a customize format? If it does, I can see small business that need customized search page could use that ( still a small population, since most of those business has their own web developer who can use google API). Otherwise it seems pretty much useless.
Could you explain returning results in a customized format? I agree with you that people in business wouldn't be a good target. Just trying to think of a demographic that might be, i.e. younger or older ppl.
