Re: [. . . ] Placement -where it is headed.

Hola Friends:

The Captain wrote:

> Ted and Jeff, I think you are both right as rain - and wrong too.

Hey - I'll take half right from Fuzzy any day.......  :-)

Also wrote:
 
>  Here is what my Fuzzy mind sees on the horizon . . .  
>  A "freeweb" and a "corporateweb" and a . . . 

It's a good theory and might possibly be a lead into a new business niche.  
BUT - I believe that after a period of time, even a "freeweb" will be looking 
for cash resources...

I thought a bit more last night about the issue - and I tried to put things 
in respect to my experience in the world of ink-on-paper.  

Web designers seem to have evolved - up to this point - as agencies rather 
than as pure designers.  For instance, if I want to print a brochure, I might 
simply hire a designer, who will choose the graphics, layout, paper stock, 
etc in order to get the product produced.  OR - I will go to an agency who 
will come up with a marketing plan that will include the manufacture of the 
brochure as a *part* of an overall strategy.

I'm very new to the web world - but the dichotomy is interesting.  Web 
developers, whether by design or default, are really agencies.  You (we?) 
have put ourselves in the position of being agencies - we provide the entree 
to marketing by helping clients with search engine positioning.  This seems 
to hold true whether or not these developers are a staff of one or 
one-hundred.

So the clients are really coming to the designers for *help* with marketing 
their product, not just the design of a web site.  So if the web, and web 
designers, continue to evolve in this fashion, then they are going to have to 
see search engine placement as a *part* of doing business as well as just one 
piece of the overall picture.

So what happens to the smaller community based web sites?  Do those smaller 
community based web sites really need to be listed on globally available 
search engines?  Great for the ego - but necessary?

If we harken back to the fundamental idea of the web - ie exchange of 
(academic) information, then Fuzzy's idea seems practical.  And it just might 
be academia that will pick up the staff of this flip side of the web and 
create information-only based search engines.

The only thing you can depend upon is change - you can either accept it, 
evolve with it, or let it roll over you like a freight train.  And there are 
far too many creative, bright, and rsourceful people that I've come across on 
this list to allow that to happen... :-)

- Jeff K.

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