Snap.com Raises the Bar for Search with Visual Results and Advanced Behavioral Algorithms
Monday, 15 May 2006
Perfect Market Technologies, Inc. announced the launch of Snap.com, its entirely new approach to search. According to the company, its Snap.com Web-search application provides users with “a unique and more efficient way to view and interact with search results, and delivers businesses a more cost-effective advertising model that aligns search relevance with advertiser goals while also protecting them from click fraud.”
According to the press release, the new search engine “rethinks search for today's users and capitalizes on the broadband capabilities available to most searchers by delivering a rich user experience.” That experience, it claims, “surpasses the traditional search results display format by adding Web page previews corresponding with the text results for each query.”
Through this change in the search result display paradigm, Snap.com says it puts an end to the trial-and-error nature of clicking through search results to see which one actually links to the site or information the user is seeking.
In addition, Snap.com says it benefits advertisers with a cost-per-action (CPA) business model that ensures that they only pay for customers who complete a transaction, not just hop in and out of advertisers' Web sites. The result for both frequent searchers and advertisers, it says, is a dramatically improved search experience.
Two-Columns of Results
The new Snap.com Web application presents search results in two columns. The left side lists a familiar text summary of each site, and the right side displays the actual Web page corresponding to each entry.
The user can simply scroll through the list using the up and down arrow keys – much like surfing the channels of a television – to immediately see each search result. Users can then directly interact with the sites returned in the search results list without ever needing to leave the search engine. “The impact is to dramatically reduce the back-and-forth hunt for the desired content,” Snap.com says.
"How many times have you rapidly clicked back and forth between a list of search results and a Web site in a seemingly endless cycle in your quest to find the exact page you're looking for?" said Tom McGovern, CEO of Perfect Market. "We've set out to change the '10 blue links' list of search results that has become the norm and offer users an alternative way to quickly find what they're looking for. We believe that combining the visual display of data with text is better than text only and that users can take in more information if it's displayed together."
Other Intuitive Features
In addition to visually displaying search results, the new Snap.com has been rebuilt to include a number of intuitive features that help users reach search satisfaction more quickly, including:
· Anticipating Your Intent: Fom the moment a user begins typing in the search box, Snap.com begins to actively anticipate intent and helps the user to form the best possible search query. Instantly a drop down menu appears offering other popular query suggestions that can greatly speed the search experience.
· Direct Interactivity with the Search Results: Snap.com eliminates another useless step in the search path by giving users of Microsoft Internet Explorer direct access to the site in the results. Rather than just seeing a preview, the user has a fully functional live Web site immediately available. Users of other browsers can push the right arrow on their keyboard to gain direct access to the Web site.
· Aligning Relevance for Users and for Advertisers: Snap.com has further simplified the search experience for users with the creation of ONE search results list. Snap.com integrates both algorithmic and paid results because the company believes both types can be relevant for a particular search. If a searcher is looking to buy a laptop computer, then it's highly likely that sponsored results (paid results are labeled "sponsored") are going to be very relevant for his or her search. If the searcher wants to learn more about birth defects, then it's likely that algorithmic results are going to provide the best sites. Snap.com's proprietary ranking algorithms list the integrated results in the order most likely to achieve user satisfaction. This is done based on a number of factors including post-click behavior of millions of previous searchers on a specific term, conversion ratings, text analysis, link analysis and others.
For advertisers, Snap.com was the first search engine to offer Cost-Per-Action ("CPA") advertising. CPA is an innovative service that allows advertisers to pay not for clicks but for desired business results. By defining a successful transaction and reporting conversion rate information back to Snap.com, they can ensure that they are only paying for actual results. CPA alleviates the worries of click fraud and is more aligned with advertiser's goals.
The Other Way to Launch
In conjunction with the launch of the new Snap.com site and search engine, Snap.com is holding "The Other Way to Launch" contest. From now until June 9, 2006, people are invited to post marketing/advertising ideas to the Snap.com blog (http://blog.snap.com).
Those ideas will appear as blog posts, along with a voting mechanism for blog visitors to voice their preference. Snap.com will then create a marketing campaign using some of the best ideas.
To make it more interesting, Snap.com is awarding $5,000 to the person(s) with the launch idea that gets the most votes from this community, and $5,000 to the blog that is credited with referring the person with the winning idea. For more information and to see official rules, go to http://blog.snap.com.