Apr 30, 2008

Gaming Search Results Gaming search results started way before search engines and the Internet.  Many of my advertisers at The Washington Post in the pre-Internet days had names like this heating and cooling company that started with ‘A’, ‘A+’ or ‘AAA’ just to appear first in the Yellow Page listings.  Word of mouth referrals account for approximately 80% of business for home service providers and other local businesses.  If as a business you can’t generate word of mouth referrals from customers and need to change your name to play the ‘A’ game, then you probably aren’t providing good service, value or reliability.  Wouldn’t it be cool if search results could rank businesses by the number of word of mouth referrals that business generated?  My recommendation, if you can’t find a referral from a friend or neighbor for that painter, plumber, electrician that you need, is to avoid any of the ‘AAA’ service providers.

Gaming Search Results

Gaming search results started way before search engines and the Internet.  Many of my advertisers at The Washington Post in the pre-Internet days had names like this heating and cooling company that started with ‘A’, ‘A+’ or ‘AAA’ just to appear first in the Yellow Page listings. 

Word of mouth referrals account for approximately 80% of business for home service providers and other local businesses.  If as a business you can’t generate word of mouth referrals from customers and need to change your name to play the ‘A’ game, then you probably aren’t providing good service, value or reliability. 

Wouldn’t it be cool if search results could rank businesses by the number of word of mouth referrals that business generated?  My recommendation, if you can’t find a referral from a friend or neighbor for that painter, plumber, electrician that you need, is to avoid any of the ‘AAA’ service providers.