inversearch blog

Online Lead Generation

2010-09-29T19:29:00.000-04:00

Getting leads is a snap with inversearch. All you need to do is register your business and you’re automatically notified of relevant consumer queries. It’s that easy. No pay per click, no click fraud and no unwanted clicks. So sign up now and kick back and let the leads flow in

Q&A, Privacy, and Ecommerce

2010-09-25T18:21:00.001-04:00

Business is business. So how do you separate business queries from social queries? You open a new tab. You do an inverse search.

People and businesses want relevant responses and business leads, plain and simple.

Inversearch is Q&A for ecommerce; it’s an Internet connection platform where questions and answers are aggregated and managed. And you get notifications when you get queries or responses, so you don’t have to search.

Pain Points Solved

Searching

An inverse search is a single private query sent in pursuit of responses.

A forward search is one to one-at-a-time; an inverse search is one-to-many. It’s a huge time-saver for consumers, and a crystal ball to businesses.

Whether you’re an individual consumer, or a business consumer, imagine taking some of your to-do list every day and inverse searching instead of trying to hunt down things one at a time. Think about the time you’d save, and what you’d do with that time.

Irrelevant Results

The consumer controls the private distribution of their inverse search queries that can reach multiple sources of information, products and services simultaneously, which increases efficiency, eliminates information overload and produces relevant results.

Click Fraud

Inversearch is pay-per-response, not pay-per-click. A business receives consumer queries and can view them prior to considering a response, which results in the lowest possible customer acquisition cost, the highest possible conversion rate, and eliminates click fraud and unwanted clicks.

If you’re a business, think about the marketing dollars you’ll save by not having to advertise in advance of consumer queries, and what you’d do with that money.

Register now as a consumer and/or business here http://www.inversearch.com/Default.aspx?Selected=registration

Quit Searching for Results and Start Getting Them

2010-08-17T17:53:00.002-04:00

Whether you’re forward searching or inverse searching the query must come first. But an inverse search is a single, confidential natural language query sent in pursuit of responses. A forward search is one to one-at-a-time. An inverse search is one-to-many. It’s a huge time-saver for consumers, and a crystal ball to businesses.
The consumer controls the private distribution of their inverse search queries that can reach multiple sources of information, products and services simultaneously. Inverse searches increase efficiency, eliminate spam and information overload, and produce relevant results.

Inverse searches can be as simple as a few keywords, a quick text message, or a letter, a RFP, RFI, or a RFE with attachments. And you can edit or delete your queries anytime you choose.

A business receives consumer queries and can view them prior to considering a response. The ability to view consumer queries in advance of advertising results in the lowest possible customer acquisition cost, the highest possible conversion rate, and the elimination of click fraud and unwanted clicks.

Business consumers save the same time as individual consumers, plus they don’t have to manage auction-based campaigns, or hire PPC management companies or SEO firms. All they have to do is respond to consumer queries, which is what they must do anyway.

Inversearch is pay per response as opposed to pay per click. The inversearch pay per response model ensures the relevancy of responses to consumers, and the highest ROI for businesses.

The main problem with pay per click is irrelevant results, because forward search results are really not results at all, but starting places to query. Hence, searching takes a lot more time than most people think. Whether you’re an individual consumer or a business consumer you have to query multiple times, first in an attempt to arrive at relevant starting places to query, then to each starting place.

Crowd sourcing or social search will get you more of the same because you’re not getting results directly from the sources best suited to respond to your queries – businesses.

It takes a relevant inverse search query to get businesses to respond.

Then you need a clearinghouse.

Inversearch is an Internet connection platform through which queries and responses are aggregated and managed.

Google considered delivering ads in response to consumer queries (http://searchengineland.com/free-tool-alert-googles-search-based-keyword-tool-16893). But companies want to control the distribution of their own adverts, not have it done for them.

Whether you’re an individual consumer, or a business consumer, imagine taking some of your to-do list every day and inverse searching instead of trying to hunt down things one at a time. Think about the time you’d save, and what you’d do with that time.

If you’re a business, think about the portion of your marketing dollars that could be saved by not having to advertise in advance of consumer queries, and what you’d do with that money.

People rely on you for your opinions on up and coming trends. Take a real good look at inversearch. Try it out. Get some of your friends or customers to test it with you. We would like to know what you think.

Inversearch: Building a Web where the Default is Privacy

2010-05-03T20:51:00.002-04:00

It took Robert Scoble’s article An Inch Closer to the End of Privacy to get me to comment on the issue of privacy (Thanks, Robert!). You may notice in the comments that I said “If you want privacy, do an inverse search that way nobody is ‘out there.’”

An inverse search is a confidential, natural language query sent to pull relevant responses from sources best suited to deliver. You personally are not “hanging out;” you are querying, and then going about your day and actually having some semblance of a life. On the other end, the businesses and professionals that are going to respond to your queries are doing the same thing, inversely. Sources that elect to receive your queries are automatically notified of them; they don’t have to search, either. Businesses get your queries and decide for themselves if they want to respond and, if they do, you can rest assured your results are relevant, and not just starting places to query like Google, Bing and Yahoo! give you.

Inversearch: Gateway to the Semantic Web

2010-04-26T18:06:00.019-04:00

At any given moment, people are looking for something. Inversearch gives them the power to find what they want, when they want it.

A search is a sign that somebody wants something, which is why selling keywords has been profitable. In the pull era, a query is the start of a semantic conversation. It means a person is looking for offers.

The basic unit of a semantic search is a query or inverse search. An inverse search is to semantic search what keywords are to today’s search engines.

Inversearch is an inverse search engine – a hub that enables people and businesses to manage queries and responses that is part of the semantic ecosystem. It’s the portal through which basic units (queries and responses) of the semantic web pass.

The Pull Economy

Interruption marketing is dying.

We’re sitting at the brink of a huge paradigm shift – a shift from a push economy, to a pull economy.

The old way – Businesses have in the past lead by pushing information on consumers, and it doesn’t work; it’s costly – to consumers, but especially to businesses.

Pushing advertising at a potential customer that has not been requested will ultimately fail as a major revenue source for most online businesses. Pay per click is one of those sources.

The new way – Consumers are starting to pull information toward them. Consumers are leading with demands, and businesses are responding with relevant supply. Inbound marketing can only increase and grow as people pull information. They will do this by natural language queries, not keywords.

In the world of pull, the vendor no longer owns the customer. The power shift of inverse search and the semantic web will give all customers – whether individuals or institutions – the tools to do their own marketing, in the other direction.

Problems with Conventional Search

Irrelevant Search Results

Type a word or phrase into a traditional search engine and you’re likely to get hundreds of thousands of results, but they’re really just starting places to query. A keyword-matching algorithm decides what to present at the top of the list; you then have to click on each link to find out whether the destination contains something relevant to your search. Search engines don’t know where the information or answers are; they just know which pages have which keywords and who links to them. This is why Google’s so-called “results” are really just starting places to query.

Searching takes a lot more time than people think. Estimates show that the Internet infrastructure isn’t scaling up very well at all. The average person now sees over 1,000,000 words and consumes 34 gigabytes of information every day. White-collar workers spend 25% of their time looking for the documents and information they need to do their work. Approximately 60% of knowledge workers note that search is a difficult process.

Click Fraud

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud is the Achilles Heel of search, and the Web. It’s the root reason you can’t get real, relevant results from a search engine.

Anchor Intelligence defines click fraud as the production of clicks or impressions with malicious intent that have no economic value to the advertiser. Although advertisers know click fraud is an issue, many do not know how to prioritize click fraud investigations relative to optimizing their existing marketing initiatives. Because the significance of click fraud is difficult to quantify, advertisers generally wait until there are blatant indications of click fraud attacks before investigating. Anchor Intelligence customers have indicated that click fraud appeared on their radar only after they noticed a sudden spike in traffic for a given ad campaign while conversions rates dropped during the same time period.

Not surprisingly, Anchor Intelligence traffic quality assessments have shown that for many advertisers, the rate of suspicious activity tends to be constant over time, allowing fraudsters to conform to typical traffic patterns over the long term. Without Anchor’s traffic quality monitoring, suspicious clicks manage to stay under the radar.

The Click Fraud Report

The latest Anchor Intelligence click fraud report shows that click fraud has reached an all time high. The “Attempted Click Fraud” rate rose 13.4% from 25.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 29.2% in the first quarter of 2010. Year-over-year, this is up 34% from Q1 2009.

Recent research by Borrell Associates and Radar Research reveals that up to 50 percent of SMBs abandon paid search advertising within 90 days, and up to 90 percent quit within 6 months.

Unwanted clicks and click fraud are serious threats to consumers, advertisers and search providers. They all want a level playing field, free from malicious attempts to beat the system. Inversearch levels the playing field.

The Solutions

The Pull Paradigm

The solution to our information problem is the pull paradigm. We are making the transition from pushing information to pulling it, and that will change everything. Originally, TV networks sent out signals for shows according to a schedule that benefitted their advertisers. Then, VCRs let consumers watch what they wanted, when they wanted, without the ad interruptions. Now, on-demand services let consumers watch a handful of TV shows whenever they like. The future is online, where you can find and watch any video ever recorded, any time you like, on any device. This will happen in all industries. People will pull information to them whenever, wherever, however they like.

Many processes will invert, in favor of the customer. No longer will companies push things through the supply chain. Instead, customers will pull things through. Consumers will pull services on demand. Marketing will change from outbound messaging to responding to queries. We won’t search for things; we’ll say what we are looking for and let things find us instead. And we won’t have to do this one-at-a-time. Inversearch enables us to connect with multiple sources simultaneously with a single query.

Inverse Search

Inversearch is more efficient because it’s natural-language search – it doesn’t require searching by keyword or key phrase.
Inversearch is more cost effective because it doesn't require bidding on keywords and key phrases.
Inversearch delivers relevant results. Queries and responses are always fresh, real-time and relevant because they’re user-generated content, not paid ranked starting places to query.
Inversearch is immune to click fraud and unwanted clicks because business advertising is delivered in response to inquiries, not in advance.
Inversearch reduces information overload and advertising overload by decreasing the need to conduct Web searches.
Inversearch enables people to connect with all available businesses for estimates, information, materials, opportunities, prices, products, proposals, research, resources, services, supplies and more.
Inversearch empowers businesses by affording them the lowest possible customer acquisition costs and the highest possible customer conversion rates.
Inversearch pay per response is 100% quantifiable. Pay per click is not quantifiable.
Inversearch has personal and business accounts to manage queries and responses and organize data.

What you want, when you want it

Inversearch is an alternative to conventional search and pay-per-click advertising. It’s a simple but powerful C2B, B2B and B2C communication tool.

Consumers and companies can connect with multiple businesses simultaneously with a single confidential query, which increases efficiency, reduces information overload and produces relevant results. Businesses receive the queries and deliver their message in response, not in advance, which results in the lowest possible customer acquisition cost and the highest possible conversion rate, and eliminates click fraud.

The modern attention economy is increasingly one where the consumer produces the query, and the responsibility of the supplier of the product or service lies in delivering relevant responses.

An inverse search query is like your own personal software agent – going out and looking for things for you, and then pulling relevant results back to you. With inverse search, the source of the information – the consumer – dictates the terms of distribution. Consumers lead with demands (queries), and businesses respond with supply (responses).

When you do an inverse search, you can express yourself in natural language and aggregate relevant results straight from the sources that can best respond to your query.

With the Internet getting ever more crowded, people need a faster and easier way to find things, and they want relevant results. With Inversearch, individuals and businesses can confidentially broadcast their needs to businesses anywhere in the world, and then go about their day instead of being captives of their PCs for hours or days.

Inversearch is a definitive destination for broad and local search – a wide-ranging centralized network of people and businesses confidentially broadcasting their needs to all possible respondents by industry, country, state, city and other criteria. An inverse search is quicker and easier than a forward search and has the capacity to dramatically increase result quality, accelerate response speed, and kill click fraud.

Simple – everything you need; nothing you don’t.

Mr. Zuckerberg, Tear Down This Wall!

2010-02-15T18:01:00.007-05:00

Here is how social media can be quantifiably valuable to businesses and consumers.

If you’re socializing, networking, fine. But what happens when you want something? You have two choices: search, or inverse search. Either way, you have to go outside your network, but doing so is quicker and easier with inversearch. With inversearch, the consumer produces the inquiry, and can send several at a time, and companies respond, which gives consumers relevant results.

Inversearch is a valuable lead channel for businesses.

For social media, inversearch is the practical, valuable, unique, and non- ad-supported revenue model they need to make social media work for business.

A better way to search – Businesses respond to consumer queries

More efficient than search – Connect with multiple businesses simultaneously with a single inquiry

The cure for search overload and information overload – Pay per response gives people relevant results

The cure for click fraud and unwanted clicks – Businesses get relevant inquiries directly from consumers

A better way to advertise – Businesses market in response to consumer queries, not in advance

Cost and time savings – Companies don’t have to bid on and manage keywords

Better returns – Highest possible conversion rate, lowest possible cost per acquisition rate

Reach Beyond Your Network

2010-02-13T13:37:00.007-05:00

Problems with pay per click continue to fuel the quest to find a better way to search and market. Process of elimination, there are really only two ways to search: forward search and inverse search. Social search is a form of forward search. It’s "crowdsourcing."

Contrary to traditional or forward search, whereby people attempt to find results and answers in existing online content, or social search, whereby people attempt to find answers in conversations with the people in their social network, inverse search is a more direct approach. Inversearch users can send natural language queries to multiple businesses and professionals simultaneously, anywhere in the world, and receive relevant responses directly from the source or sources most qualified to respond. Because businesses pay to respond to consumer inquiries, results are relevant. And they’re real results, not just starting places to query, like you usually get with traditional or forward search that uses computational algorithms and pay per click. You don’t receive opinions or worthless returns, like you might get from crowdsourcing. Inversearch is private, secure and non-intrusive.

When it comes to getting the job done, don’t mess around, tell businesses what you want, when you want it, and let them find you. You’re doing them a favor: saving them valuable time and advertising dollars.

Getting answers from real people takes time, as even users of Inversearch can attest to, but the answers are more relevant and comprehensive than what a user can find using other types of search, and it creates a more satisfactory user experience. The more people use it, the less time it takes.

Beyond Social Search – The Next Big Thing

2010-02-04T06:56:00.000-05:00

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Inverse search is that line. Inversearch is the easiest way for people and businesses to connect, engage, without searching, without advertising, and do it directly, privately, and securely. The more people use it, the faster it is.

Agree? Disagree? Have a better idea? Just want to speak your mind? We want to hear it.

Adding Pay-Per-Response to Your Marketing Mix

2010-01-24T14:47:00.012-05:00

If you are putting all your eggs in the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) basket you’re missing the bulk of your potential market. On average, 75% of consumers don’t click on sponsored ads (see James Baker’s article 10 reasons Pay Per Click advertising doesn’t always pay).

Pay-Per-Response (PPR) offers businesses the highest possible conversion rate and the lowest possible cost per acquisition rate. Advertising always hits its mark. ROI is always 100%.

What you want, when you want it.

Inversearch is a simple but powerful communication tool. Instead of searching one-website-at-a-time, anyone can send a single confidential inquiry, question or request that can reach multiple people simultaneously, anywhere in the world. People view, monitor and respond to your inquiries by specific category. Your inquiries are alerts to people who can give you relevant responses or results, in real-time.

Whether you’re a business, a consumer, or both, Inversearch is more efficient and cost effective than traditional (or forward) search.

Why do people use Inversearch?

• Inversearch is more efficient because it’s natural-language search – it doesn’t require searching by keyword or key phrase.

• Inversearch is more cost effective because it doesn't require bidding on keywords and key phrases.

• Inversearch delivers relevant results because queries and responses are User-Generated Content (UGC).

• Inversearch is immune to click fraud and unwanted clicks because business advertising is delivered in response to inquiries, not in advance.

• Inversearch reduces information overload and advertising overload by decreasing the need to conduct Web searches.

• Inversearch enables people to connect with all available businesses for estimates, information, materials, opportunities, prices, products, proposals, research, resources, services, supplies and more.

• Lower costs and higher conversion rates.

• Personal and business accounts to organize data.

Inquiries are always fresh, real-time and relevant because they’re consumer-generated content. Respond with simple text or deliver your entire site. It’s up to you.

Inversearch is simple. All you have to do is be there.

Simply register your business at http://www.inversearch.com/Default.aspx?Selected=Businessreg and you’ll be notified automatically as consumer inquiries arrive in your categories.

Don’t forget that businesses are consumers too. Sign up as a consumer at http://http://www.inversearch.com/Default.aspx?Selected=Consumerreg

Inverse Search Engine Inversearch considering Acquisition Offers

2010-01-04T17:53:00.002-05:00

Inverse Search Engine Inversearch considering Acquisition Offers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FREDERICK, Md., January 4, 2010 – The world’s first and only inverse search engine Inversearch (http://www.inversearch.com) describes itself as a Web-based application that enables anyone to send a single confidential query to multiple businesses simultaneously, and enables businesses to view, monitor and respond to consumer queries.

Consumers register for free. Businesses register for free and deliver advertising in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance. Inversearch is pay-per-response (PPR), not pay-per-click (PPC), so it eliminates the need for businesses to gamble on clicks becoming inquiries, is immune to click fraud and spam, and cuts search time down to almost nothing.

While Inversearch is not officially for sale, the Company says it is willing to look at reasonable offers. Inversearch has a unique business model that is valuable as a primary or secondary revenue stream.
“Inversearch is not able to comment on confidential discussions. However, I can tell you we are considering offers,” says Inversearch CEO, Joe Cibula.
Inversearch is live on the Web since June 23, 2008 and has extensive world-wide coverage on numerous search engines and social media.
About Inversearch, LLC

Inversearch is a privately held company specializing in the development of software to provide everyone a real alternative to scouring the Web and pay-per-click advertising. Inversearch provides businesses with the most credible, cost-effective means to obtain customers, and provides consumers with the easiest, most reliable way to obtain relevant search results. Those interested in searching an entirely new way can visit Inversearch at http://www.inversearch.com and read the company's blog at http://inversearch.blogspot.com.

Contact:

Joseph Cibula
Inversearch, LLC
jcibula@inversearch.com
http://www.inversearch.com

# # #

Inverse Search seen as Bridge between Social Media and Business

2009-12-19T14:54:00.003-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FREDERICK, Md., December 19, 2009 - The coming paradigm shift is consumers producing natural-language queries and businesses delivering relevant results; for this you need an inverse search engine. Inverse search engine Inversearch ( http://www.inversearch.com) enables anyone to send a single confidential query to multiple businesses simultaneously, and enables businesses to view, monitor and respond to consumer queries.

Inversearch has a new look, faster and easier registration, and is now simpler than ever to use. Registration is free, as is the ability for businesses to view and monitor consumer queries.

Inversearch is pay-per-response (PPR), not pay-per-click (PPC), so it eliminates the need for businesses to gamble on clicks becoming inquiries, is immune to click fraud and spam, and cuts search time down to as close to nothing as possible.

"We've seen about a 25% increase in registrations in the past few months," says Inversearch CEO, Joe Cibula. "We appreciate that people understand inverse search and see the value in it."

About Inversearch, LLC

Inversearch is a privately held company specializing in the development of software to provide everyone a real alternative to scouring the Web and pay-per-click advertising. Inversearch provides businesses with the most credible, cost-effective means to obtain customers, and provides consumers with the easiest, most reliable way to obtain relevant search results. Those interested in searching an entirely new way can visit Inversearch at http://www.inversearch.com and read the company's blog at http://inversearch.blogspot.com.

Contact:

Joseph Cibula
Inversearch, LLC
jcibula@inversearch.com
http://www.inversearch.com

# # #

Time and Money

2009-11-17T18:44:00.002-05:00

If you search 1 hour a day you could save 9.125 weeks of time per year. How much time could you save if you didn’t have to search?

If you spend $10,000 a month on advertising you could respond to 121,212 credible consumer inquires per year. How much money could you save if you didn’t have to advertise?

Social Inverse Search

2009-11-06T19:33:00.004-05:00

Social media and business networking sites need a universal inverse search feature in order to enable everyone to connect with people and engage businesses outside of their network, people they can’t otherwise find, people they don’t even know yet, and bring them into their networks. Comment, suggest, share, ping, tweet, retweet, tell your friends, tell your groups, tell everyone. Tell facebook, twitter and every other social networking and business networking site you know that they need an inverse search link.

Engage

2009-10-30T05:46:00.007-04:00

Some people may think that, in an attention economy, privacy is obscurity. We think everyone would agree that not all information is meant to be shared with the public. If you want to engage businesses, or want them to engage you, you need to inquire so they can respond. With InverSearch, anyone can send a single confidential inquiry to multiple businesses simultaneously, anywhere in the world. Companies monitor and respond to consumer inquiries. Consumer inquiries are business alerts. Business responses are relevant results.

Adding Inverse Search to Your Marketing Mix

2009-10-02T09:52:00.001-04:00

InverSearch offers businesses the highest possible conversion rate and the lowest possible cost per acquisition rate. Simply register your business at https://www.inversearch.com/Default.aspx?Selected=Businessreg and you’ll be notified automatically as consumer inquiries arrive in your categories. You can monitor and respond to consumer inquiries any time you like. Inquiries are always fresh, real-time and relevant because they’re user-generated content. Respond with simple text or deliver your entire site. It’s up to you.

InverSearch wants to help your small business grow. Check it out. You’ll be glad you did.

Inverse Search: Search Made Simple

2009-10-02T09:47:00.001-04:00

Whether you’re researching or intent on making a purchase, if you want relevant search results, you should try an inverse search. You can send a single confidential inquiry that can reach multiple businesses simultaneously – locally, globally or anywhere in between.

Businesses monitor and respond to consumer inquiries. Your inquiries are business alerts. Business responses are your results.

Business responses are always fresh, real-time and relevant because they’re user-generated content, not ranked results.

Simply register as a consumer at https://www.inversearch.com/Default.aspx?Selected=Consumerreg. InverSearch wants to help make your life easier. Check it out. You’ll be glad you did.

2009-09-08T17:42:00.005-04:00

inverse search

This is where we think Google is headed. If you’re following Internet search, here are two links you need. The first one’s a TechCrunch article, and the second link is Google’s forum page about the Future of Search Advertising.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the Future of Search: “Connect It Straight To Your Brain”

Here’s what we get out of this article:

Sergey said “…if you had the thought, and [Google] knew what you meant…,” and Eric said “…long term goal of Google search is to give the user one exactly right answer to a query.”

Let’s paraphrase: If you have [a] thought (and hopefully you do from time to time), and were able to relay that thought via the Web, you should be able to get the one relevant response you want.

Sounds like InverSearch to me:

InverSearch is a commercial exchange for information, opportunities, products, resources and services. There’s no other place you can go, online or off, and send a single confidential message to businesses all around the world.

- No searching – Connect with multiple businesses simultaneously with a single confidential message.

- No advertising – Advertising is delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance, which results in lower costs and higher conversion rates.

- No irrelevant results – Inquiries and responses are user-generated content.

Here’s how InverSearch works. If I’m in consumer mode, I just type my message, pick my categories and hit send. If I’m in business mode, my company receives messages, without advertising, and I choose whether to respond. Consumer inquiries are business alerts. Business responses are consumer results.

It’s that simple.

InverSearch is the only way you can get the word out to the world with a single confidential message, and the only way businesses can easily monitor and respond to consumer needs.

Here’s a link to the Google forum: http://groups.google.com/group/ads-quality-feedback-forum?pli=1 Here you can see feedback from ad publishers and others on the future of search advertising. You’ll note that the whole purpose of this particular Google forum (there are more Google forums) is to gather public opinion on delivering ads in response to consumer inquiries. Join in. Voice your opinion. If you already have a gmail user name and password you can sign in here. If not, you can quickly sign up here.

Research provided by Basex, the world’s foremost knowledge economy research and advisory firm, reveals the modern attention economy is increasingly one where the consumer produces the inquiry, and the responsibility of the supplier of the product or service lies in delivering valuable intangibles.

Basex conducts independent research on what some of the world's smartest companies are doing in the areas of knowledge sharing and collaboration. This research includes new ideas and tools to raise efficiency, productivity, innovation, and competitiveness as companies enter the knowledge economy.

This is where we’re going, people. Be prepared.

Inverse Search is better than Conventional Search

More efficient. No searching – Connect with multiple businesses simultaneously with a single confidential message.
Eliminates search overload, information overload, attention overload, advertising overload, media overload.
Less expensive. No advertising – Businesses receive inquiries directly from consumers without advertising or bidding on keywords.
Businesses deliver advertising in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance.
No irrelevant results. Inquiries and responses are categorized, user-generated content.
Enables businesses to monitor and respond to consumer needs.
Immune to all types of unwanted clicks and click fraud.
Highest possible advertising conversion rates.
Lowest possible customer acquisition rates.
Allows custom, natural-language queries.
Enables consumers to connect with all available relevant resources.
Provides accounts to organize data.

Making Social Media Work for Business

2009-08-19T18:44:00.014-04:00

Social media doesn’t work as a mass public early detection and warning system, for anything, from potentially disastrous, to potentially profitable; information is neither reliable nor guaranteed. The Emergency Alert System, for example, isn’t “on” anything, it “interrupts” things. That’s how you know it’s for real. That’s how you know fact from opinion.

Social media is mass “public” discovery and communication, so fine if you want to search and/or manage your personal relationships and/or social graph this way; we’ll call this “RM,” short for relationship management. Social media can also work for CRM and for what we like to call pre-research, or presearch. Presearch is simply investigation before hard research, sort of like micro-blogging is to blogging.

CRM is a bit more complicated than personal RM. If a business comes across a social site where it sees or was alerted to conversation about it (we’d like to call this investigation stage brand management), the company can then decide if it’s right to jump in. But don’t sell anything.

The Big Deal

The big deal about mixing social media and business comes down to 2 words: advertise and discover. It’s that simple.

Businesses must advertise; they want and need leads, prospects, customers, clients. They need to get the word out. Consumers need get the word out too. They need to discover; they need things. The $64,000 question-du-jour is how to use social media to find consumers and businesses.

Here’s where the mixing comes in. But the mixing isn’t quite that simple.

Don’t expect to sell anything to your direct contacts in social networks. It’s fine to offer something of value to your network. It’s also fine to hope that some of your contacts will promote your offerings to their networks and potentially generate a ripple or viral effect.

Here’s the big deal: The problem is overload. Information Overload. Search Overload. Attention Overload. Advertising Overload. Media Overload. Everything Overload.

But social is just what it says, social. P2P. C2C. It’s where potential customers congregate. But it’s also where C2C can become C2B and B2C. This, other than CRM, is the only reason businesses come to social media. If we don’t want businesses invading, let’s give them a reason not to: Don’t search. Don’t advertise. Inverse search.

Traditional search is a pain in the ass; it’s one to one-at-a-time. Inverse search is one-to-many.

To your left is a social search map. To your right, an inverse search map.

Using InverSearch completely negates the need to search, blog, advertise or tweet. But if you’ve got nothing better to do, then go right ahead. If you’ve already sent a query via inverse search, your important messages and needful things are privately conveyed in the most efficient and effective manner. Congratulations! You now have more free time.

Some might argue that information is neither reliable nor guaranteed with inverse search. Let’s see. When a consumer sends an inquiry via inverse search, it is not guaranteed to be reliable, but then again businesses aren’t obligated to respond to your inquiries either. So why would anyone waste their time sending a bogus query?

Some might wish to contest the fact that responses from businesses are relevant, reliable. Why would a business pay to send you anything but?

Here’s a way to clean up things. Businesses don’t need to present to audiences; they don’t need to advertise. Consumers can let them know when they’re ready to move on something.

Two Questions:

1. If you’re a business, wouldn’t you rather hear directly from consumers, without advertising?

2. As consumers, wouldn’t you like to get rid of the spam once and for all, and get what you need, without searching? Wouldn’t we all be better off if we got what we needed straight from the horse’s mouth?

Google on the Road to Inverse Search

2009-08-18T18:26:00.004-04:00

How much proof do you need?

Google Research Blog

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2009/08/on-predictability-of-search-trends.html

Google Insights for Search updates

http://www.huomah.com/News/Latest/Google-Insights-for-Search-updates.html

Google Talk Future of Search Advertising

http://search-engine-optimizing.co.cc/2480/google-talks-future-of-search-advertising-2/

http://www.jatinmahindra.com/2009/08/12/google-talks-future-of-search-advertising/

Why is Google telling businesses what’s trending the most? Aren’t they going to “top themselves out?” Let me explain. If the bulk of their advertisers run to the most popular keywords, let’s say, they’re hurting their business, not to mention small businesses. If the larger advertisers are going to start bidding-up “pizza” to sell “tennis shoes” what does this do to the small business that really does sell pizza?

Two facts:

1. Businesses don’t have to advertise to reach consumers.
2. Consumers don’t have to search for businesses.

Google is on a path to inverse search – that’s our domain, thank you!

Here are two things for you to really ponder:

1. Why would a business let Google design their ads and deliver them automatically when businesses can just use InverSearch and deliver their entire Web site if they so choose for under a dollar?

2. Why does Google think they need to read people’s minds to deliver advertising? Is there an ulterior motive?

What do you think? We want to hear your comments.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.
- John Gall

InverSearch Is More Than Immune To Click Fraud

2009-08-14T17:48:00.001-04:00

Not only is InverSearch immune to click fraud, it’s the beginning of a paradigm shift from the burden of searching being placed on the consumer or the demand side. Since businesses already respond to consumer inquiries that come from conventional business advertising, InverSearch adds no difficulty to the business or the supply side.

InverSearch is a tool whereby the searcher (or inquirer) can be confidential, yet InverSearch provides source (or respondent) identification because business advertising is still delivered, it’s just delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance of them.

InverSearch has reduced the amount of time used to search to just a few seconds or minutes. InverSearch is a faster and more effective means of retrieving information and a better information retrieval system that will yield significant benefits to everyone.

InverSearch: A Legal Description

2009-08-11T18:36:00.001-04:00

InverSearch bills its business users by the number of responses they make to consumer queries rather than by the number of hits they receive. InverSearch utilizes a pay-per-response business model that does not affect the relevancy of search results or devour the budgets of advertisers. This method is different from the pay-per-click system used by many search engines. A consumer Internet user who wishes to use InverSearch establishes, at no charge, a password-protected consumer account, which includes a user name and email address. Once the consumer account is established, the user has access to a personalized My Account page. This graphical interface is used for submitting search queries, managing queries, and reading incoming responses. Business accounts are established by businesses that wish to be queried by consumers with established accounts. These password-protected accounts include billing information. A member business has a My Account page that contains a listing of the account activity. When a business receives a query from a consumer user, it has several options, which include responding or deleting the query. Typical business responses include information such as PDF menus from restaurants, time-sensitive coupons, links to store catalogs, Websites, etc. Once a response is made by a business to a particular inquiry, InverSearch is no longer required for that specific communication because the inquirer is able to contact the business directly. Because users establish accounts, and queries do not use the WebCrawler method, users have more directed responses.

Click Fraud

2009-08-10T20:00:00.002-04:00

Approximately 25 percent of advertisers quit using pay-per-click. Click fraud is a real threat to consumers, advertisers and search providers. They all want a level playing field, free from malicious attempts to beat the system. We at InverSearch believe that the only way to avoid all types of unwanted clicks is to avoid pay-per-click advertising. According to Click Forensics the click fraud rate in Q1 2009 was 14 percent. If you add in unwanted clicks the rate is about 33 percent.

InverSearch Treats Your Attention as Your Own Property

2009-08-10T19:48:00.002-04:00

The need to fund traditional search engines led to the creation of the paid inclusion model, in which search engines charge advertisers to have hyperlinks to their sites included in search results. The dominant form of paid inclusion is pay-per-click (or pay-for-placement), in which advertisers bid to have their hyperlinks listed in the results for a given search query. The auction winner then pays the search engine the agreed price per user that follows their hyperlink.

The paid inclusion model, as well as more pervasive advertising networks like Yahoo! Publisher Network and Google's Adsense, work by treating consumer attention as the property of the search engine (in the case of paid inclusion) or the publisher (in the case of advertising networks). This is different from InverSearch, which treats an individual's attention as his or her own property. (See Attention Overload)

Searching Takes More Time Than You May Realize

2009-08-10T19:45:00.001-04:00

Information overload is the inability to extract needed knowledge from an immense quantity of information, which results in the loss of ability to make decisions, process information, and prioritize tasks.

Organizations of all shapes and sizes have already been significantly impacted by information overload, a problem that costs the U.S. economy $900 billion per year in lower productivity and less innovation.

Searching, advertising and irrelevant results are the three primary causes of information overload. Consumers and businesses must confirm the validity of the content, and assume the risk of misinformation.

It’s a common belief that the use of conventional search engines helps users to find information quickly. However, the results they deliver aren’t really results at all; they’re “starting places” to query. Hence, searching takes a lot more time than most people realize, especially because information published online may not always be reliable, which causes information overload, which leads to the need to verify information, which leads to more searching, which takes up more valuable time.

The Difference between Search and Inverse Search

2009-08-07T17:52:00.002-04:00

Points of Difference (PODs)	InverSearch	Search
More efficient	Y	N
Less expensive	Y	N
Subject to unwanted clicks and click fraud	N	Y
Ranked results	N	Y
Relevant results	Y	N
Primarily used for research	N	Y
Primarily used for commerce	Y	N
Reduces Information Overload	Y	N
Requires keyword or key phrase searching	N	Y
Requires keyword or key phrase bidding	N	Y
Categorized	Y	N
High advertising conversion rates	Y	N
Low cost per acquisition (CPA) rates	Y	N
Requires advertising and marketing in advance of consumer inquiries	N	Y
User-Generated Content (UGC)	Y	N
Allows custom, natural-language queries	Y	N
Reach multiple businesses simultaneously with a single query	Y	N
Allows consumers to easily connect with all available relevant resources	Y	N
Provides accounts to organize data	Y	N

Problems with Conventional Search

2009-08-06T18:04:00.003-04:00

Problems with Conventional Search

Businesses and consumers want to reduce information overload
Businesses want an alternative to pay-per-click advertising
Businesses and consumers want relevant search results
Businesses want credible sales leads
Businesses and consumers want a solution to click fraud
Businesses want lower costs and higher conversion rates

InverSearch Solutions

InverSearch is more efficient because it enables people to connect with multiple businesses simultaneously with a single inquiry.
InverSearch is less expensive because it doesn't require bidding on keywords and key phrases.
InverSearch delivers relevant results because queries and responses are User-Generated Content (UGC).
InverSearch is immune to click fraud because business advertising is delivered in response to inquiries, not in advance.
InverSearch reduces information overload by decreasing the need to conduct Web searches.

The Modern Attention Economy

2009-08-05T18:52:00.001-04:00

No Searching

Connect with multiple businesses simultaneously with a single confidential message, increase efficiency and reduce information overload.

The modern attention economy is increasingly one where the consumer produces the inquiry, and the responsibility of the supplier of the product or service lies in delivering valuable intangibles. These intangibles are defined as:

• Immediacy – priority access, immediate delivery
• Personalization – tailored just for the inquirer
• Interpretation – support and guidance from respondents
• Authenticity – directly from the supplier of the information, product or
service
• Accessibility – wherever, whenever
• Embodiment – relevant responses
• Patronage – responding to consumer inquiries
• Location – being able to find exactly what it is you’re seeking

No Advertising

Businesses receive inquiries directly from consumers and other businesses without advertising, which results in lower costs and higher conversion rates.

InverSearch is more cost-effective than paid advertising. Inversearch is pay-per-response as opposed to pay-per-click, which allows businesses to view inquiries before choosing to respond, and makes InverSearch immune to click fraud and other problems associated with paid advertising.

No Irrelevant Results.

Inquiries and responses are always fresh, real-time and relevant because they’re user-generated content, not ranked results.

2009-08-05T18:34:00.002-04:00

When, How and Why to do an Inverse Search

2009-07-31T20:39:00.002-04:00

We all reach a decision point sooner or later. The networking is done. The research is complete. We know what we want, at least to an extent. But we may not always know how to find it.

Searching burns up a lot more time than most people might think. Not everything is fit to be seen publicly. What do I do now? I know what I want to send, but I don’t know who to send it to. And I want to do it in private.

This is when an inverse search works best. All queries are confidential. Just type your message, choose a category or categories and hit send.

InverSearch is categorized. Businesses and professionals see your inquiries based on the categories they’ve chosen, so you know they’re interested. And they know you’re inquiries are relevant because you came to them before they advertised, not after.

No Searching. No Advertising. No Information Overload. No Click Fraud.

2009-06-27T09:49:00.003-04:00

Ever wonder why you’re the one doing the searching when you’re the one with your wallet open?

InverSearch is based on the law of supply and demand. Consumers demand. Businesses supply. InverSearch is how demand meets supply. Consumers inquire, and businesses respond. Since businesses already respond to consumer inquiries that come from conventional business advertising, InverSearch adds no difficulty to the business or the supply side.

InverSearch enables consumers to connect with multiple businesses with a single confidential message, receive relevant results in the form of responses and free up valuable time. Users can send a message in a fraction of the time it takes to conduct a conventional Web search. What used to take hours or days now takes just a few seconds or minutes.

Consumers want relevant results. Businesses want bona fide leads. The best way for consumers and businesses to get what they want is to get them directly from each other. There’s no better way to get what you want than from the source of the information, product or service.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get leads directly from consumers and cut your business advertising expenses by as much as 95 percent?

You can do it with InverSearch. Businesses receive inquiries directly from consumers without advertising or bidding on keywords. InverSearch utilizes a pay-per-response model that allows businesses to view inquiries before choosing to respond, and pay only if they do, making the process immune to click fraud.

InverSearch reduces information overload by decreasing the need to search. InverSearch also helps reduce email overload. The InverSearch system lets you choose whether you want alerts to inquiries and responses sent to your email and wireless devices.

Click here to learn more about InverSearch. It’s is how demand meets supply. Are you registered yet?

Web 2010, from a business perspective

2009-06-16T18:55:00.007-04:00

There is discussion everywhere about whether the likes of Twitter and Facebook can become important business tools. As far as we can tell, about 50% of the populous think they won’t work as business tools because there are just too many distractions. Like we said in our last post, people who are “socializing” don’t want business “interruptions,” and business people don’t want the social “noise.”

Social networking sites like Facebook are used for personal reasons and are not designed as tools for business communication. Business networking sites such as LinkedIn are used for business networking and are not a place for transactions or collaboration. Business transactions are not public. Collaboration and transaction takes place in a private environment.

Business doesn’t end with networking. There comes a time when you decide you want to purchase services or products from a company, or consult with another business or professional, or just buy something from someone. The networking is over, and now it’s time to get down to business. Now is the time to make contact, without searching, and especially without having to search multiple sites.

InverSearch is a way around searching. Anything you can do or find with an inverse search reduces the need to conduct traditional searches like you would on Bing or Google.

Web 2010 and beyond is going to be about filtering information to avoid information overload and attention over load. It’s going to be about differentiating social networking from business networking, not integrating them. It’s going to be about businesses marketing, without advertising. It’s going to be about consumers and businesses quickly and easily getting in touch with suppliers and manufacturers of services and products, and getting the word out to multiple sources with one simple message.

Here’s how people and businesses use InverSearch: as Consumers (sending inquiries): C2B; as Businesses (responding to consumer inquiries): B2C; as Business Consumers (businesses sending inquiries to other businesses): B2B.

Here are just a few reasons why doing an inverse search makes sense:

Businesses and consumers want to reduce information overload.
Businesses want an alternative to pay-per-click advertising.
Businesses and consumers want a solution to click fraud.
Businesses want bona fide leads.
Businesses and consumers want relevant search results.
Businesses want control over their expenditures.
Businesses and consumers want real-time results.

We’d like to know what you think:

Do you think doing personal and professional networking in the same place is a good idea?

How would you use InverSearch? When?

About InverSearch

InverSearch.com is a Web-based commercial exchange for information, products, and services that enables consumers to connect with multiple businesses simultaneously.
InverSearch helps reduce information overload by decreasing the need to conduct Web searches. With InverSearch you can connect with multiple businesses with a single confidential message, receive relevant results in the form of responses and free up valuable time.

Businesses that are registered with InverSearch receive inquiries directly from consumers and other businesses without advertising or bidding on keywords. InverSearch utilizes a patent pending pay-per-response model that allows businesses to view inquiries before choosing to respond, and pay only if they do, making the process immune to click fraud.

2009-06-06T09:23:00.010-04:00

Beyond Social Media

There’s a Y in the road when it comes to deciding whether you are networking for social purposes or networking for business reasons. You’ve heard the old saying: “You can’t mix business with pleasure.”

When people are socializing they don’t want to be spammed by advertisements. When business people are networking they don’t want to hear about your personal life.

Don’t get us wrong, there is nothing wrong with socializing. It’s just that you can’t mix the two. Social sites are not built for business, and vice versa. Trying to get the word out about a business on Twitter is like flicking a lit match in a river. With Facebook it’s like flicking a lit match in a bonfire. There are some sites that we like to refer to as hybrid, such as LinkedIn and FriendFeed, but they’re still not for transacting business.

When you inevitably reach the barricade in the road you will need to cross over to solely a business networking mode. We think the perfect solution is to have an inverse search feature on all of the abovementioned sites.

On the other end of the spectrum you have InverSearch. InverSearch is built solely for consumers to connect with businesses (remember that businesses are consumers too), which means businesses don’t have to advertise, and consumers don’t need to search. A consumer sends a single inquiry out into cyberspace, and interested, self-identified businesses respond. All businesses need to do is register so consumer inquiries can reach them.

An editor at a local magazine recently interviewed me. Here’s what we discussed:

Interviewer: Joe, here’s what we already know:

InverSearch.com is a business networking site – a Web-based commercial exchange for information, products and services.

InverSearch reduces information overload by decreasing the need to conduct Web searches. With InverSearch you can connect with multiple businesses with a single confidential message, receive relevant results in the form of responses and free up valuable time.

InverSearch also reduces the need to advertise and is immune to click fraud and other problems associated with pay-per-click.

Interviewer: Are people receptive to the fact that they don’t have to search or advertise to get what they want?

Joe Cibula: I’d say that most people probably never thought about an approach such as ours. InverSearch is gaining users every day, but the simplest, yet greatest challenge for us is getting the message across and getting the word out to everyone. It’s ironic [being that InverSearch is an inverse search engine], but, like most tech businesses, most of the work is up front. We’d love to hear from some influential bloggers.

Interviewer: How is InverSearch immune to click fraud?

Businesses receive inquiries directly from consumers and other businesses without advertising or bidding on keywords. InverSearch utilizes a pay-per-response model that allows businesses to view inquiries before choosing to respond, and pay only if they do, making the process immune to click fraud.

Interviewer: Joe, what is the basis of your market opportunity?

Some 25 percent of advertisers quit using pay-per-click. This is the basis of our market opportunity. Click fraud is a real threat to consumers, advertisers and search providers. According to our research the click fraud rate in Q1 2009 was 14 percent.

Information overload costs US businesses over $900 billion per year. Over $1 trillion dollars are lost to information overload and click fraud every year. We believe that inverse search technology will play a vital role in the reduction of both.

Interviewer: Joe, where did the idea for an inverse search engine come from?

Joe Cibula: InverSearch was born out of a project we were working on back in 2000, which was then a virtual bid room for contractors. We soon realized that the real value was in connecting people and businesses, or, better yet, letting them connect. When Google came out with its pay-per-click business and revenue model, we immediately saw potential problems with it, one of which is now called click fraud, so we developed the pay-per-response model that InverSearch uses today.

Interviewer: Can you explain the theory behind the pay-per-response model?

Joe Cibula: We wanted something that would make complete sense for both consumers and businesses. Consumers want relevant [search] results. Businesses want bona fide business leads. The best way for consumers and businesses to get what they want is to get them directly from each other. Consumers submit confidential inquiries into the system. Consumers choose how and where their inquiries are categorically and geographically delivered – locally, globally, or anywhere in between.

Interviewer: Do you mean my inquiry or inquiries are blasted out into cyberspace, and I don’t know exactly to whom they’re going?

Joe Cibula: Yes. That’s the beauty of it. You don’t have to because your inquiries are sent incognito – you’re not using your InverSearch user name, not your email address, or any other personal information. Each inquiry has a unique ID number. InverSearch is taxonomic, or categorized, like a phone book. So sending and inquiry is like being able to contact every plumber, in every phone book, anywhere in the world, as easily as sending a single text message or email.

Interviewer: So I don’t have to worry about privacy and security, right?

Joe Cibula: Exactly. When consumers – and remember that businesses are also consumers – send inquires, the businesses on the receiving end that are signed up [categorically and geographically] receive the inquiries as business leads or sales leads. Since the consumer is anonymous, the businesses get to view inquiries before choosing to respond, making the process immune to click fraud.

Interviewer: So how do the businesses contact me if I’m anonymous?

Joe Cibula: Their replies are sent via the system to your InverSearch account via the query ID. Once businesses reply to you, you can contact them directly.

Interviewer: So they will undoubtedly be sending me links to their site, contact information, etc, correct?

Joe Cibula: Precisely. InverSearch is also less expensive than direct mail and most if not all other forms of advertising. Businesses can send links, newsletters, menus, coupons and much more.

Interviewer: So businesses don’t even need to advertise?

Joe Cibula: Correct. They’re essentially advertising inversely. Business advertising is delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance of them.

Interviewer: What does it cost?

Joe Cibula: The current pay-per-response rate is $0.99.

Interviewer: Under a dollar to respond to a lead that comes directly from a potential buyer?

Joe Cibula: You got it. No more bidding on keywords, no more pay-per-click, no more irrelevant results, and a level playing field for all businesses of any size.

Interviewer: What if I’m just surfing the Web, or searching for basic information and not intending to buy anything?

Joe Cibula: Great question. There are essentially two types of search: search by keywords or key phrase, and taxonomic or categorized search. There are basically two sub-categories: searches that involve collaboration, and those that don’t. Traditional search engines are fine if your search doesn’t involve collaboration.

Interviewer: Can you name something I wouldn’t search for using InverSearch?

Joe Cibula: I couldn’t say for sure, but you probably wouldn’t need to do an inverse search for, say, the population of Mongolia, or other basic reference material.

Interviewer: I get it. Are there any other inverse search engines?

Joe Cibula: We haven’t seen any. You can do a traditional search for inverse search engine. You will only find InverSearch.

Interviewer: You have a very interesting revenue model.

Joe Cibula: Thank you. It’s our version of how we think a true pay-per-response model should work. There are other sites we’ve seen that claim to be pay-per-response, but they’re not; they’re pay-per-click. Most sites are if you get right down to it. They’re all about delivering more and more ads, which leads to information overload.

Interviewer: So, consumer and business accounts are free?

Joe Cibula: Yes. Only the businesses pay per each response they choose to make to consumer inquiries. Businesses also get their first three responses free so they can test out the system. That’s it.

Interviewer: So consumers don’t have to search, and businesses don’t have to advertise?

Joe Cibula: That’s right. The consumer is the demand side, and the business is the supply side. So we don’t think the consumer should have to search so hard, nor should businesses have to advertise so much. The Internet is inundated with ads, which is partly why traditional search results are so skewed. By the way, they’re not really results; they’re starting places to query.

Interviewer: Do you think InverSearch could actually help the economy?

Joe Cibula: Using InverSearch certainly helps businesses and consumers save time and money. Hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted every year due to information overload, time-consuming searches that turn up irrelevant information, misdirected advertising, and fraudulent and unwanted clicks. According to our research, about 30% of clicks are fraudulent or unwanted.

Interviewer: Do you view InverSearch as a SMS?

Joe Cibula: Inquiries can be short or long. We’ve allowed plenty of room for users to be as precise as they want to be. The better you describe something, the better the response is going to be. Users can blast out inquiries in a matter of seconds or just a couple minutes. It’s up to them.

Interviewer: Can users add files, photos, etc?

Joe Cibula: Here’s how that works: Once a business responds to your inquiry, you contact them by any means you choose. You no longer need InverSearch for that particular inquiry because the contact has been made. If you choose to respond to a business, and choose to email them, you can do anything your email allows you to do.

Interviewer: So users wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time on the InverSearch.com site?

Joe Cibula: No, they wouldn’t. That’s the whole idea. You can post an inquiry or send a response in seconds, and then go to the beach, or move on to whatever else you have to do. You don’t need to sit and search for hours.

Interviewer: I noticed that the InverSearch site has a search feature for businesses to use. Am I correct in stating this?

Joe Cibula: Yes. The search feature is for businesses to search for consumer inquiries. The reason we have that feature is because businesses could be considering adding new services, like a painting contractor might want to search for leads for drywall, or wallpaper. They may also want to let a business associate, perhaps in a different field of expertise or another company, know that there is something for them on InverSearch.

Interviewer: InverSearch seems like it’s a universal want ad site, and kind of like Craigslist. Would I be correct in saying this?

Joe Cibula: Partially. The difference is that you’re sending inquiries, not just posting them on a wall, so to speak. Craigslist requires users to search and advertise. InverSearch requires neither.
Interviewer: Some people might say that InverSearch couldn’t possibly have eliminated click fraud. What do you say to that?

Joe Cibula: InverSearch is immune to click fraud because it’s pay-per-response, not pay-per-click.

Interviewer: I noticed on the InverSearch website that businesses and consumers can have email notifications of inquiries and responses sent to their PDA or cell phone. Does InverSearch charge for that?

Joe Cibula: No, InverSearch doesn’t. Your carrier might. You’d have to check with them.

Interviewer: Can you tell us a little more about the notification process?

Joe Cibula: Inquiries from consumers automatically arrive in InverSearch business user accounts. Responses from businesses automatically arrive in InverSearch consumer user accounts. InverSearch email notifications and notifications to PDA’s or cell phones can be turned on or off at the user’s discretion.

Interviewer: Did you ever think about not charging businesses per response?

Joe Cibula: No. If we didn’t charge businesses per response, the responses consumers get might not be relevant.

Interviewer: What about profanity?

Joe Cibula: InverSearch has a profanity blocker.

Interviewer: Is it possible for someone to post a bogus inquiry?

Joe Cibula: InverSearch deletes repetitive or otherwise questionable inquires. I can’t get into too much more detail here. I can say that there would be nothing for someone to gain financially by doing so. The only incentive would be for someone to try to hurt our reputation, but we’ve accounted for the possibility.

Interviewer: I’ve never seen a search engine that has user accounts. Why is that?

Joe Cibula: In fact, most search engines require registration of some sort. InverSearch consumer users and business users have accounts so they can manage incoming and outgoing inquiries and responses. Traditional search engines have a history file or menu.

Interviewer: What are the biggest problems you see with social media?

Joe Cibula: Information overload, privacy and security.

Interviewer: Would you say that InverSearch is antisocial?

Joe Cibula: No. It’s just that socializing is not the same as networking. Business transactions are not social, or public. InverSearch is about getting the word out, making initial contacts, and networking.

Interviewer: So, in a nutshell, consumers don’t have to search, businesses don’t have to advertise, and the system is immune to click fraud?

Joe Cibula: That’s it in a nutshell.

Inverse Search Engine InverSearch Reduces Information Overload

2009-05-13T18:51:00.004-04:00

What is InverSearch?

InverSearch is a Web-based commercial exchange for information, products and services. Individuals and businesses simply post confidential categorized inquiries, and the system immediately distributes the queries to businesses that have registered and want to respond to such requests. People can post an inquiry in a fraction of the time it takes to conduct a traditional Web search, and receive relevant information and responses from genuinely interested sources. They then select the source best meeting their criteria from among interested self-identified parties. In many respects, InverSearch is like a dating service, matching consumers with needs to businesses with solutions. InverSearch includes accounts for businesses and consumers to organize data related to their queries. The system lets you choose whether you want alerts to inquiries and responses sent to your email and wireless devices.

No Information Overload

InverSearch reduces information overload by decreasing the need to conduct Web searches. With InverSearch you can connect with multiple businesses with a single confidential message, receive relevant results in the form of responses and free up valuable time.

No Searching

The modern attention economy is increasingly one where the consumer produces the inquiry, and the responsibility of the supplier of the product or service lies in delivering valuable intangibles. These intangibles are defined as:

· Immediacy – priority access, immediate delivery
· Personalization – tailored just for the inquirer
· Interpretation – support and guidance from respondents
· Authenticity – directly from the supplier of the information, product or service
· Accessibility – wherever, whenever
· Embodiment – relevant responses
· Patronage – responding to consumer inquiries
· Location – being able to find exactly what it is you’re seeking

No Security Issues

Send confidential inquiries to businesses and receive relevant results in the form of responses. Every message you send is confidential and has its own unique ID number.

Traditional Search vs. Inverse Search

InverSearch is, as the name implies, an inverse search engine. Think of Google as traditional search or forward search. Think of InverSearch as inverse search.

There are essentially two types of search: Traditional Search – search by keywords or key phrase; and Categorized Search – search by taxonomy or category (InverSearch is categorized search). There are basically two sub-categories: searches that involve collaboration and those that don’t (e.g., searches for reference material). Traditional search engines are fine for basic reference material, that is if you know what you’re looking for and know the correct terminology to type in a search box, and if your search won’t involve collaboration.

Say you knew what you were looking for, and you knew what to type in a traditional search box. You’re still not guaranteed relevant results. Why? Because the pay-per-click revenue model used by most traditional search engines inherently skews results delivered by what otherwise could be a good information search engine.

Reduce Advertising Expenses

InverSearch is an easy and inexpensive means to deliver advertising in response to credible consumer inquiries. Any registered user can create an account and post an inquiry free of charge. InverSearch is pay-per-response (PPR), as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC), enabling businesses to truly control their expenses and achieve the highest possible advertising conversion rates while connecting with potential customers.

InverSearch is a tool whereby the searcher (or inquirer) can be confidential, yet InverSearch provides source (or respondent) identification because business advertising is delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance of them. InverSearch has reduced the amount of time used to search to just a few seconds or minutes. InverSearch is a faster and more effective means of retrieving information and a better information retrieval system that will yield significant benefits to everyone.

With InverSearch, businesses receive inquiries directly from consumers and other businesses without advertising or bidding on keywords. InverSearch utilizes a pay-per-response model that allows businesses to view inquiries before choosing to respond, and pay only if they do, making the process immune to click fraud.

Information Overload

Information overload is the inability to extract needed knowledge from an immense quantity of information, which results in the loss of ability to make decisions, process information, and prioritize tasks.

Organizations of all shapes and sizes have already been significantly impacted by information overload, a problem that costs the U.S. economy $900 billion per year in lower productivity and less innovation.

One of the main problems is the formidable number of irrelevant and invalid results obtained from traditional Web search engines. Consumers and businesses must confirm the validity of the content, and assume the risk of misinformation.

It’s a common belief that the use of traditional search engines helps users to find information quickly. However, the results they deliver aren’t really results at all; they’re “starting places” to query. Hence, searching takes a lot more time than most people realize, especially because information published online may not always be reliable, which causes information overload, which leads to the need to verify information, which leads to more searching, which takes up more valuable time.

The Volume of Information

The volume of information on the Internet has exceeded the ability of most people to find the information they need.

There are many places to look for the information, but some resources are more valuable or easier to use than others. As the issue of information volume and accuracy become greater, the need for new and better tools to handle these problems is also increasing.

Social attention, collective attention

Attention economy is also relevant to the social sphere. More specifically, long term attention can also be considered according to the attention that a person dedicates to managing its interactions with others. Dedicating too much attention can result in "social interaction overload,” which is described as people becoming overwhelmed in managing their relationships with others, for instance in the context of social networks in which people are the subject of a high level of social solicitations.

Web Spam

As search engines have become the primary means for finding and accessing information on the Web, high rankings in the results for certain queries have become valuable commodities. However, traditional information systems are vulnerable to pollution. Because the Web environment contains profit seeking ventures, attention-getting strategies evolve in response to search engine algorithms. It is estimated that successful exploitation of such strategies, known as Web spam, is a potential $4.5 billion per year business.

Since most traditional search engines now rely on some form of page ranking (recursive counting of hyperlinks to a site) to determine search result rankings, a gray market has emerged. Participants in this market engage in a variety of practices known as link spamming, link farming, and reciprocal linking.

The economic incentives are similar to those of email spam: it costs very little to spammers to create huge numbers of links, so even a very small conversion rate (percentage of searchers who click on a spam-boosted search result) can be profitable. The costs of Web spam are distributed among the search engines, which must spend tremendous amounts of money and labor on developing spam-detecting technologies, and searchers, who must spend attention on determining which search results are valid and which are spam (since the search engines are never 100% successful in keeping spam out of their indexes).

Sales Lead Generation

The need to fund traditional search engines led to the creation of the paid inclusion model, in which search engines charge advertisers to have hyperlinks to their sites included in search results. The dominant form of paid inclusion is pay-per-click (or pay-for-placement), in which advertisers bid to have their hyperlinks listed in the results for a given search query. The auction winner then pays the search engine the agreed price per user that follows their hyperlink.

The paid inclusion model, as well as more pervasive advertising networks like Yahoo! Publisher Network and Google's Adsense, work by treating consumer attention as the property of the search engine (in the case of paid inclusion) or the publisher (in the case of advertising networks). This is different from InverSearch, which treats an individual's attention as his or her own property.

Click Fraud

Approximately 25 percent of advertisers quit using pay-per-click. Click fraud is a real threat to consumers, advertisers and search providers. They all want a level playing field, free from malicious attempts to beat the system. We at InverSearch believe that the only way to avoid all types of unwanted clicks is to avoid pay-per-click advertising. According to our research the click fraud rate in Q1 2009 was 14 percent.

Compelling Problems Solved by InverSearch

· Businesses and consumers want to reduce information overload
· Businesses want an alternative to pay-per-click advertising
· Businesses want control over their expenditures
· Businesses want bona fide leads
· Businesses and consumers want relevant search results
· Businesses and consumers want a solution to click fraud

Additional Benefits of InverSearch

· Less time-consuming. Single inquiries versus multiple searches.
· Immunity to click fraud. Business advertising is delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance of them.
· Businesses pay only for the responses they choose to make to consumer inquiries.
· Searching by natural language queries produces relevant responses from self-identified sources.
· Pay-per-click advertising programs give businesses no assurance of attracting business from consumers. With InverSearch, consumer inquiries are the best indication of potential customers.
· Innovative and inexpensive marketing means. InverSearch is up to 95% less expensive than alternative forms of advertising.
· Businesses respond to consumer-generated leads, and obtain online information, prices, estimates, and proposals from manufacturers, subcontractors, vendors and suppliers.
· Superior business advertising conversion rates.
· No keyword or key phrase searching or bidding.
· Free to register, post inquiries, and view inquiries before responding.
· Businesses and consumers easily control their own accounts.
· Notification of inquiries and responses to email accounts and wireless devices can be turned on and off.

Check out InverSearch today at http://www.inversearch.com/ and see what it can do for you and your business.

2009-03-09T09:47:00.003-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Inverse Search Engine InverSearch Wipes Out Click Fraud While Delivering Competitive Leads

FREDERICK, Md., March 9, 2009 – Literally with the click of a button, InverSearch (http://www.inversearch.com), the patent-pending inverse search engine, has rendered pay-per-click advertising obsolete and put businesses in the driver’s seat.

If that weren’t enough, InverSearch gives business users three free responses to consumers’ natural-language inquiries before they ever pay a cent. Even after those first three responses, businesses pay only $0.99 per response--perhaps the only truly affordable advertising available to companies tightening their belts during the worst recession many business owners have ever weathered.

Free to consumers, InverSearch lets people make natural-language searches—“I need a bonded local contractor with experience remodeling kitchens,” for example—and then delivers those inquiries to relevant businesses within whatever geographic area the consumer states, whether that is in one ZIP code or worldwide.

Businesses can choose to respond or delete the inquiries and only pay for the responses they make beyond those first three free responses. After a response is made, the consumer and the business are free to communicate directly without further InverSearch involvement. The result is that a business can acquire a new customer for less than a dollar, with full control over the advertising budget and zero risk of click fraud.

It’s a paradigm shift from traditional search and pay-per-click advertising, where businesses pay upfront with no guarantee of reaching the right people and have no control over their advertising budgets. With InverSearch, business advertising is delivered in response to customer inquiries, not in advance of them.

“Especially now, no business can afford to gamble its advertising budget on pay-per-click advertising,” stated InverSearch founder and chief strategy officer Joseph Cibula. “Traditional search engines deliver unreliable results, put the search burden on the consumer and are rife with click fraud. Pay-per-click has not served businesses or consumers well. It’s time for a new kind of search and a new way of advertising.”

About InverSearch, LLC

InverSearch is a privately held company specializing in the development of software to provide everyone a real alternative to scouring the Web and pay-per-click advertising. InverSearch provides businesses with the most credible, cost-effective means to obtain customers, and provides consumers with the easiest, most reliable way to obtain relevant search results. Those interested in searching an entirely new way can visit InverSearch at http://www.inversearch.com and read the company’s blog at http://inversearch.blogspot.com.

Contact:

Joseph Cibula
InverSearch, LLC
jcibula@inversearch.com
http://www.inversearch.com

# # #

What’s InverSearch?

2009-03-07T10:16:00.002-05:00

What if there was a way you could get relevant results without searching?

What if there was a way to tell the world what you want, and do it anonymously?

What if there was a way that businesses could know what consumers want?

What if there was a way that businesses could get sales leads without advertising?

That’s InverSearch!

What's advertising got to do with it?

2009-02-25T08:05:00.003-05:00

We understand that search engines that depend on pay-per-click advertising to generate revenue need to deliver ads. We also understand that most businesses don’t like pay-per-click. They want business leads. They also want relevant search results, and so do consumers.

So, what’s advertising got to do with it? Nothing really.

If you don’t want ads, you need to use an inverse search engine. You want InverSearch (http://www.inversearch.com).

Pay-per-click advertising is just flat out bad all around. If you separate pay-per-click from otherwise decent search engines, you’ll see that pay-per-click can’t stand on its own, but search can. Now mix the two, and you’ve got chaos – or click fraud, unwanted clicks, whatever.

So then why do search engines stick to pay-per-click? Glad you asked. Because they’re stuck with it. It’s the only way they can charge you, the public, for words, and for ranking in their engines. It suits them fine, but it doesn’t do you any good whatsoever. At best, it skews relevant results, and promotes fraud, or at least bad business practice, period.

Let’s say you’re a business. Why are you paying, or bidding, to be on page 83 of the search results? Or even page 4 for that matter?

Stay tuned . . .

2009-01-07T13:11:00.004-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Intelligent New Search Engine Plays Matchmaker between Consumers and Businesses

FREDERICK, Md., January 7, 2009 – InverSearch, a ground breaking new search engine at http://www.inversearch.com/, has created a paradigm shift in the way search engine users and companies wishing to reach those users will interact on the Web.

InverSearch is a natural language search engine that connects consumers with businesses. For the user, finding what they need is as easy as sending a text or an email into the “Webosphere." For businesses, it’s as easy as receiving a sales lead and responding to it.

As opposed to the customer spending hours searching the Internet using keywords that may or may not direct them to the right kind of business, InverSearch allows people to quickly and easily find things based on their exact criteria. Individuals and businesses simply post natural language inquiries, and the system immediately distributes their inquiries to registered businesses interested in responding to their requests. Users can post and respond to inquiries locally, worldwide or anywhere in between.

Business leads are received without advertising or bidding on keywords. If your business is a member of InverSearch, you receive relevant inquiries to your business. Businesses get to view sales leads before choosing to respond, and pay only if they do, making the process immune to click fraud and other hassles associated with pay-per-click advertising. Business advertising is delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance of them.

An inverse search is simpler and faster than conducting a traditional Web search and does not require users to search by, or businesses to bid on, keywords or key phrases. InverSearch business users control their own advertising budgets and achieve the highest possible advertising conversion rates while connecting with potential customers.

InverSearch provides businesses with the most credible, cost-effective means to obtain business leads, and gives consumers the easiest, most reliable way to receive relevant search results. Since businesses already respond to consumer inquiries that come from conventional business advertising, InverSearch easily replaces the online advertising businesses are already doing.

About InverSearch, LLC

InverSearch is a privately held company specializing in the development of software to provide everyone a real alternative to scouring the Web and pay-per-click advertising. InverSearch provides businesses with the most credible, cost-effective means to obtain customers, and provides consumers with the easiest, most reliable way to obtain relevant search results. Those interested in searching an entirely new way can visit InverSearch at http://www.inversearch.com/. InverSearch was launched on June 23, 2008.

Contact:

Joseph Cibula
InverSearch, LLC
jcibula@inversearch.com
http://www.inversearch.com/

###

Welcome to the Future of Search

2008-12-17T10:33:00.003-05:00

Companies like Powerset and True Knowledge have attempted to develop natural language search engines. The problem is that all search engines, with the exception of InverSearch, are based on indexing the Web. Applying natural language search processing algorithms to search engines that only index the Web is the problem. With the Internet becoming even more populated, information overload has become a major issue. As a result, individuals and businesses need a better, faster, smarter, more relevant, accurate and economical way to locate what they need. For many, natural language search is the next logical step. Instead of searching for keywords, you ask, in plain English, what it is you’re looking for, the same way you would ask a human. And, if you’re going to ask a question, a response is expected. That’s why we’ve created InverSearch to be as easy as texting or sending an email. InverSearch has sidestepped linguistic and applied artificial intelligence technologies to develop one of the most comprehensive, versatile and scalable means of delivering both relevant results and business leads. InverSearch is easy to use and easy to monetize in new and exciting ways.

Here’s what people are saying about InverSearch

InverSearch ensures that advertising budgets are not eaten up, and the quality of information searched for is kept intact. If you want true results, and not just starting places to query, InverSearch is for you. The number of consumer/business connections that can be made are subject to the number of users the site attracts – http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/inversearch-com-search-engine-for-business

InverSearch states their site is immune to click fraud and the problems associated with pay-per-click advertising. Maybe Google should take notes on this. Business advertising is delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance of them. InverSearch utilizes a patent-pending pay-per-response model whereby business users pay only for the number of responses they make to consumer inquiries rather than for the number of hits they receive. I think they have an interesting concept and need to get some additional traffic and traction to the site. Once this occurs, I think they should be well on their way – http://greatstartups.com/2008/11/inversearchcom-interactive-search-engine/

Interactive Search Engine Connects Consumers with Businesses

2008-12-15T14:06:00.002-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Interactive Search Engine Connects Consumers with Businesses

FREDERICK, Md., December 15, 2008 – InverSearch (http://www.inversearch.com/) is a natural language search engine that connects consumers with businesses. Individuals and businesses simply post natural-language inquiries, and the system immediately distributes their inquiries to registered businesses interested in responding to their requests. Users can post and respond to inquiries locally, worldwide or anywhere in between.

InverSearch allows people to quickly and easily find things based on their exact criteria. InverSearch users also have accounts in which to manage their inquiries and responses. The responses users receive are relevant results from self-identified sources. The inquiries businesses receive are credible sales leads.

An inverse search is simpler and faster than conducting a traditional Web search and does not require users to search by, or businesses to bid on, keywords or key phrases. InverSearch business users control their own advertising budgets and achieve the highest possible advertising conversion rates while connecting with potential customers.

People use InverSearch to reach the most people with the least amount of time and effort. Inquiries are posted in lieu of searching, and can be done in a matter of minutes or seconds. Business advertising is delivered in response to consumer inquiries, not in advance of them, making the process immune to click fraud.

InverSearch is immune to click fraud and the problems associated with pay-per-click advertising. InverSearch utilizes a patent-pending pay-per-response model whereby business users pay only for the number of responses they make to consumer inquiries rather than for the number of hits they receive.

InverSearch provides businesses with the most credible, cost-effective means to obtain business leads, and gives consumers the easiest, most reliable way to receive relevant search results. Since businesses already respond to consumer inquiries that come from conventional business advertising, InverSearch easily replaces the online advertising businesses are already doing.

About InverSearch, LLC

InverSearch is a privately held company specializing in the development of software to provide everyone a real alternative to scouring the Web and pay-per-click advertising. Those interested in searching an entirely new way can visit InverSearch at http://www.inversearch.com/. InverSearch was launched on June 23, 2008.

Contact:

Joseph Cibula
InverSearch, LLC
jcibula@inversearch.com
http://www.inversearch.com/

###

Web Searching Evolves with the Launch of InverSearch

2008-07-05T13:31:00.004-04:00

FREDERICK, Md., June 23, 2008 -- Take the typical Internet search and turn it on its ear. The result is InverSearch (http://www.inversearch.com/), the new, patent-pending Internet search engine that’s like no other search engine before it.

Officially launched today, InverSearch inverts the relationship between businesses and consumers. The site acts as a conduit between businesses and the potential clients who are searching for the products or services they need. But businesses--not Internet searchers--are ultimately in control of how much they spend at InverSearch: The company’s pay-per-response business model completely eliminates click fraud, charging businesses only for the responses they make to interested searchers.

“InverSearch is a search engine that bills its business users by the number of responses they make to consumer inquiries rather than by the number of hits they receive,” explained InverSearch, LLC founder and chief strategy officer Joseph Cibula. “InverSearch has moved completely away from the pay-per-click business model that currently dominates the search industry. In its place, we favor pay-per-response, which does not affect the relevancy of search results or devour advertisers’ budgets.”

Consumers and businesses alike sign up for InverSearch accounts; consumer accounts are available free of charge, while businesses pay only for the bona fide leads the site delivers to them. Once consumers create their accounts, they can create confidential inquiries for the products and services they need and submit the inquiries to businesses globally, locally or anywhere in between. The inquiries are delivered via the InverSearch user interface to InverSearch business clients, who can choose whether to respond directly--via e-mail or with incentives like coupons and special offers--or to delete consumer inquiries that do not interest them, paying only for the responses they actually make.

“In many respects, InverSearch is like a dating service, matching consumers with needs to businesses with solutions,” Cibula stated. “It’s the beginning of a paradigm shift from the burden of searching being placed on the consumer. Since businesses already respond to consumer inquiries that come from conventional business advertising, InverSearch integrates seamlessly with the advertising businesses are already doing.”