Gravee Pours Itself into Internet Search

A new Internet search engine surfacing this week promises to share its advertising revenue with the Web sites that show up in its search results.

People use search engines mainly to find a few useful Web sites, yet these content providers dont see a penny of the billions of dollars in ad revenues search engines generate, say those behind Gravee.com.

“In our humble opinion, if anyone deserves a share of ad revenue, its the content owners,” the company writes on its Web site.

Gravees tactics are part of a broader trend in which search engines, large and small, are offering consumers, Internet content creators and advertisers rewards for using their search engines.

The more head-turning the offer, the smaller and newer the search engine; they must do something outrageous to stand out from the pack and to find room in an industry dominated by Yahoo, AOL, Google and Microsoft Corp.s MSN Internet division.

/zimages/4/28571.gifRead morehereabout Internet searchs saturation problem.

Some Internet search commentators see a darker side to Gravee.

Jeremy Zawodny, a popular technology Weblogger, says he is concerned about Gravees effects on companies known as SEOs that specialize in getting their clients Web sites listed higher up on search results.

“So now a spammer (err, I mean “SEO”) can get money from a search engine by being in the top 10 even if theyre never clicked on,” he wrote in comments left on Gravees site. “Im in the wrong end of this business!”

/zimages/4/28571.gifRead morehereabout paying for patronage.

A Gravee representative couldnt be immediately reached for comment.

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