Hello Folks !

I need your opinions on a concept.
Please do not fool around but honestly give your opinions because if your opinions seem all positive then I am thinking of running such a venture mentioned below.
Also, please forward everyone you know (on the internet) to this post so I can also gather their opinions.

My Idea :
When other searchengines send you visitors there is no guarantee that every visitor they send you will buy something from you. If they leave your website without buying anything from you or leaving their email-address to you then you never get the chance to contact them and ask how you can help them to make them buy from you and not from your competitions.
I am thinking of running a searchengine where if you list your link on it then my searchengine will track who we are sending to your website and then give you the chance to contact the visitor.
This is good for you because if that visitor left your website without buying anything from you then now you get a chance to turn this round.
My 1st question : Is this a good idea ?

Likewise, my searchengine will track who we are sending to your competitions' websites and then give you the chance to contact their visitors.
This is good for you because if that visitor left your competition's website without buying anything from them then now you get a chance to turn this visitor into your own customer.
My 2nd question : Is this a good idea ?

I know that, you have a question how the tracking will be done to trace and contact your own website visitors and those of your competitions.
Well, I am not going to reveal all my trade secrets here because I don't want other searchengines competing with me.
All I can say is that, my searchengine won't be installing any spywares on my searchengine users PCs nor cookies to track and trace them. My users can have all the spyware detectors they like but not a single one of them will ever alert them that my searchengine is installing spywares on their PCs.
Also, I believe, you have another question, why would any of my users allow my searchengine to keep records of what websites they surf and why would they give my searchengine the permission for it to forward commercial company's ads to them ?
Well, again I am not going to reveal all my trade secrets here because I don't want other searchengines competing with me.

All I want from you is to forget seeing things from my searchengine user's point of view but see things from your point of view as some-one who lists his website on my searchengine. Let me worry about how to attract such users.

Now, my 3rd question is : would my searchengine service be valuable to commercial websites like your's ?
I mean, how much would you charge (if you was in my position running my searchengine) to give a website the tools to contact their own and competitions' websites' visitors ?


SCENARIO
Let's assume that your website is listed on my searchengine. I would provide you the following services. Let me know, if they would ve valuable to websites like you or not.

FIRST SERVICE :
I would show you stats :
a). who visited your website and
b). when and
c). what webpages he/she visited (so you can learn their tastes and find-out which webpage made them leave).

And for this record, I would charge you 5 cents per visitor.
So, if I show you record of 2 visitors, my charges would be 10 cents.
Now, if you contact one of these visitors (for feed-back, offers, etc.), I would charge you $1 to forward your 5-line ad to the visitor.
Do you reckon my price is too cheap ?
My 4th question is : What's the maximum do you think I can stretch to but still have people like you paying to use this particular service by the tonnes ?

SECOND SERVICE :
I would show you stats :
a). who visited their website and
b). when and
c). what webpages he/she visited (so you can learn their tastes and find-out which webpage made them leave).

And for this, I would charge you 10 cents per visitor.
So, if I show you record of 2 visitors, my charges would be 20 cents (double to what I would charge you if you was contacting your own visitor).
Now, if you contact one of these visitors, I would charge you $2 (double to what I would charge you if you was contacting your own visitor) to forward your 5-line ad to the visitor.
Do you reckon my price is too cheap ?
My 5th question is : what's the maximum do you think I can stretch to but still have people like you paying to use this particular service by the tonnes ?


YOUR CONCLUSION :
Would you list your website on my searchengine knowing that I would allow your competitions to contact your website visitors (those whom my searchengine sends to your website) ?
If you don't, then you too won't be in a position to do the same to your competitions who will be listed on my searchengine.
It's upto you now.
Frankly, if I was you, I wouldn't mind if my competitions lure my visitors to their order forms because these visitors already left my website without making any purchases anyway. So, what have I really got to lose ?
Frankly, I'd have something to gain because now I'd be in a position to do the same to my competitions.


YOUR DEAD CONCLUSION :
Now, imagine that, a visitor is browsing your competition's website and at that time my searchengine gives you the chance LIVE to see what webpages the visitor is browsing at the moment (so you can learn his/her taste) on your competition's website and then when the visitor is about to click to your competition's order form, my searchengine gives you the chance to buzz them to distract them from making the order and also gives you the chance to make an offer (so you can make an offer with a better bargain than your competition), then would you use this service knowing that your competitions would be in the same position to do the same to your own website visitors ?
It's upto you now.
Would you really list your website on my searchengine and have the risk of having your competitions snatching your "likely-hood customers" like this from your order form just so that you too can have the same advantage over your competitions in a similar manner ?
If you would, then upto how much are you willing to pay my searchengine to give you the advantage to buzz your competition's visitors from their order forms like this to your own LIVE offers ?
I mean, what's the maximum do you think I can stretch to but still have people like you using this particular service by the tonnes ?



Thanx

My first reaction, as a consumer:
1) FIRST SERVICE: If I visit a website and leave because it holds little or no interest and the site starts emailing me with offers, I will be pissed and NEVER purchase from them. Their email would be spam because visiting a website is not asking for their solicitation.
2) In the same situation, if competitors start emailing offers I would be doubly pissed because thay would in no uncertain terms be spamming me.

As a user of your service:
3) SECOND SERVICE: I would also be upset if you sent those people to my competitors. Rarely do people purchase goods the first or second time they enter a site. But eventually they may. It usually takes multiple visits before the purchase decision is made. If you've already sent them to my competitor, your service would be costing me money. A worthless service.

So frankly there are some major holes in the concept IMHO. But that's from the standpoint that spam and spyware are bad and annoying to consumers. From the standpoint that they are good things, scenario 1 seems like a good idea, scenario 2 would be bad for my business unless I can receive leads but prevent leads going to others.

__________________

Cow: You're a lawyer too?
Mooseblood (mosquito): Ma'am, I was already a bloodsucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase!

I will have to agree with WaltP. I would resent having my potential customers sent to other sites and would really hate to receive email I didn't want.

The second thing is a distinctly fishy smell coming from this scheme. The only things you can really tell about a visitor is the originating IP address, which may be dynamic and change often, and with the right software, the NIC address. Neither of these will actually identify the visitor in any meaningful way. You may be able to track the IP owner via 'whois', but that is still useless for actually 'identifying' anyone.

Somehow I always get wary of people who say "trust me", and doubly so when they allude to 'secrets'.

I third Will's thoughts

Wouldn't that be just institutionalized spyware? Is that what users are always trying to protect themselves from? Who will be interested in using such a tool? Who would be the costumers?

atish saste