The New Search Engine on the Block
. . . Aesop
Part 2

by Robin Nobles


In Part 1, we began our interview with Mark Joyner of the Aesop
Marketing Corporation. Let's continue with that interview here.

Question: Sometimes when you search on a phrase at Aesop, no
results come up. Other times, you search on the same phrase and
you get lots of results, many of which are totally irrelevant for
the query. Will the relevancy of the search results improve, and
if so, when can we expect to see a difference?

Joyner: You shouldn't see any blank search results anymore. You
probably caught us while we were doing maintenance. Over the next
8-12 weeks we will incrementally be making minor tweaks to the
algorithm to improve relevancy.


Question: What steps are you taking to increase visibility of
Aesop, so that it becomes more well known?

Joyner: I prefer not to talk about our marketing strategies at
this time - we're privately held, so it's to our benefit to be
tight lipped. However, all I can say is that you can expect to
see huge traffic leaps in the next 1-3 months.


Question: How often does your crawler spider the Web? Is it best
to submit each page or your site, or will the spider crawl
through the site and index the majority of pages?

Joyner: We're constantly crawling.

Submitting your main page and then using our accelerated addition
feature is the best way to go. This is something unique. If you
get one page indexed, we'll email you access to a facility where
you can add pages *on the fly* and they will be indexed in two
hours.

(By the way, Aesop's user agent is aesop_com_spiderman.)


Question: Tell me more about the Aesop META tag. It says on your
site, "The Aesop Meta Tag is a new standard that has changed the
relationship between search engines and searchers. This tag helps
searchers better distinguish various types of web sites and find
exactly what they are looking for." I understand that this tag is
very important in terms of the Aesop engine. Do you see any of
the other major engines moving toward the use of this tag?

Joyner: I think that as more sites adopt the new convention (and
thousands and thousands of sites already have), other engines may
adopt it as well. We are doing everything we can to get general
acceptance of the convention as we believe it will greatly
improve the experience of a searcher and help them find what they
are looking for faster.


Question: How many pages are in the index at this point in time?

Joyner: About 5 million including pages yet to be indexed.


Question: Do you have any plans to add directory results in the
future? If so, will they be Aesop-generated directory results, or
will you partner with someone like LookSmart or the ODP?

Joyner: We're not planning on that at this time.


Question: Do you have any plans for a pay submission service in
the future, similar to the way Inktomi operates?

Joyner: We have a totally different model that we will release in
the next month or so. Submissions will always be free, but
advertising will be totally different.


Question: Is link popularity an important factor for determining
ranking for the Aesop engine? Will you be adding click-through
popularity in the future?

Joyner: We're considering many factors to determine relevancy at
this time. Link popularity will definitely play a role.


Question: Are standard META tags important to the Aesop engine?

Joyner: Absolutely.


Question: If someone wants to rank high in the Aesop engine, what
do you recommend that they do?

Joyner: a. Submit valid, good looking pages with a classy title
and description that jives with your subdued keywords meta tag.
b. Use the aesop meta tag (relevancy boost given automatically).
c. Place an aesop.com search box on your site (relevancy boost
given automatically). d. Don't spam. e. Don't keyword stuff.


For More Information . . .

For more information about the Aesop engine, read this press
release posted at Search Engine Guide:
http://www.searchengineguide.com/pr/2001/04/23_pr1.html


In Conclusion . . .

While still in its teething stage and without the ability to send
you a tremendous amount of traffic at this point in time, the
Aesop engine is still one to watch. With the marketing power
behind the engine, we can expect some interesting developments in
the future.

And, maybe this engine will be around for a while!


This article was written by Robin Nobles, a professional
freelance writer and the Director of Training at the Academy of
Web Specialists (http://www.academywebspecialists.com). Over the
past few years, she has trained thousands of people in her online
and onsite courses in search engine positioning strategies and
has written three books that can be ordered through Amazon. Visit
the Academy's training Web site to learn more about their online
courses: http://www.onlinewebtraining.com.