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Disintermediating the disintermediator?



Interesting blog post pasted below from Danny Sullivan at
searchenginewatch.com.  The gist is that organizations are finding ways to
offset some of Google's ability to direct traffic, which could be
significant now that so many people believe that search begins and ends
with Google.  There may be an implication here (I'm not sure myself; this
is new territory) that such counter-Google tactics will increase costs for
content publishers, as they will have to invest in new tool sets.  
Sullivan't post follows:

>I'm working on a story about the Google AutoLink feature and controversy
>is has raised with some publishers that should be out tomorrow. But I
>wanted to note an interesting change now that I spotted at Barnes &
>Noble, the poster child for concerns over the tool.

>Yesterday, I could go over to Barnes & Noble, find a page with an ISBN
>number and use the AutoLink tool in the Google Toolbar to turn the
>numbers into links that lead to Amazon. Today, all those ISBN numbers are
>already links.

>What happened? My guess is that Barnes & Noble got wise to the fact that
>AutoLink won't impact any ISBN numbers that are already links -- so they
>made every ISBN a link leading back to within their own site.

>Powell's Books hasn't figured that out yet. If you are using the Google
>Toolbar with the new feature, visit this page, and see how clicking on
>the button will show you how the ISBN can be turned into an Amazon link.

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Joe Esposito