Dogpile: Why Are There No Search Ads?
For a long time now there has been a search engine that has been totally forgotten about, that search engine is Dogpile. Dogpile is a meta-search engine that is currently owned by Infospace. I was browsing the site this afternoon and suddenly noticed that there werent any search ads in the results. Im so used to seeing search ads on Yahoo, Google, etc, but nothing on Dogpile. Why is this? Why would they have a search engine that is obviously not getting huge amounts of traffic, but is still getting something, so why not at the very least create a partnership with Google and get some money for those search ads?
This is probably not a good example, but im really sick of seeing Silicon Valley companies who get funding or whatever, but havent actually developed a real business model. Prime example lately was Sonific. Sonific was a great idea, but they never really had an affective business model that could go with their high class product. That is the main reason why I like seeing startups like Techmeme do so well, because they are bootstrapped with no money at all, but they have a real aim and a business model that can pull it all together.
Update: There was a misprint which stated that Dogpile was owned by IAC, which its not. Dogpile is owned by Infospace.
8 Comments
Correction…Dogpile is owned by Infospace Inc, which is based out of Bellevue, WA.
There are other ways of getting money from partnerships with Google, Yahoo, etc., such as “clicks”.
You are also assuming that Dogpile is not getting a lot of hits and does not have a good business model.
Do your research!
Im not too sure if Dogpile does get a lot of hits. What percentage of the search market does the site have?
I used to work for the company, so I can’t say specifically what the traffic is now. You can see the partnerships on the website, which is based on the search results, such as Google.
If you look at the results in Dogpile you will notice a “sponsored by” in some of the results. These are ads. they’re just mixed in with the rest of the search result and not seperate like on other engines.
dogpile makes money from the ads which are paid results of every queries a user searches. check out my search engine with out any paid search results.
How come your review sounds like a bitter yahoo employee who found out there is something better than the rave? For those of us who have been using Dogpile since near the beginning, we do not need percentages or numbers to know it works and people love it. I agree with “Do you Research”… DO YOUR RESEARCH. Did it ever occur to you that using advanced tools and other functions you can turn on and off certain items. Not to mention that with Dogpile you do not get half the idiot sites that really half nothing to do with your search. Not to mention that people go to Dogpile because they are SEARCHING for information and get entertained or educated by the website mascot, Arfie. Unlike Google and yahoo or Asks, you feel that the search engine creators actually care about their users and improving on their knowledge. Funny as it may seem it is a website that cares about you when you open it.
For some of your research… try looking at their rescue dog website, or their facebook page.