Search Engines in eCommerce Web-Based Information Architectures

1
Search Engines in eCommerceWeb-Based Information
Architectures

• MSEC 20-760Mini IIJaime Carbonell

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General Topic Business Applications and Models

• Topics Covered
• Discussion of Miniproject as Needed
• Ingredients for a successful eBusiness startup
• Sample eCommerce business ideas
• Ingredients for extensions of established
  business
• Ingredients for an eBusiness Plan

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Some Ingredients for a Successful eBusiness
Startup (1)

• Match Technology and Market
• Great technology without a large market potential
  fails
• Great market opportunity without requisite
  reliable technology also fails
• The absence of both fails gloriously (Pets.com,
  Webvan.com, )

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Some Ingredients for a Successful eBusiness
Startup (2)

• B2C and C2C eBusiness Examples
• Searching and browsing the web
• search engines, Yahoo-like-taxonomies, locators,
  ...
• On-line trading
• eBrokerages, eAuctions, eMiniMalls, ...
• People-to-people
• chatrooms, email, instant-messaging,
  peer-to-peer...

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IR-Related eCommerce Business Ideas eCLIP

• eCLIP Adaptable Electronic Clipping Service
• Goal Personalized eNewspaper
• (weekly, daily, hourly)
• User sets interest profile
• YES "financegteCommercegttechnology"
• "sciencegtastronomy"
• NO "sports" "politicsgtscandals"
• KEY-TERMS "ecommerce" "search engine" "IPO"
  "Hubble"

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IR-Related eCommerce Business Ideas eCLIP (2)

• Multiple news-feeds are categorized on entry
  ...and filtered by user profiles
• Maximally-relevant novel news is included
• Next most relevant or less novel is summarized
• Rest is ignored.
• User feedback automatically adjusts profile
• (e.g. thumbs-down on more Amazon.com news
  thumbs-up on news about new search engines)
• Revenue models subscription, advertisement, ...

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IR-Related eCommerce Business Ideas ePUB

• ePUB Customized Publishing
• Goal Offer customized books (textbooks,
  trade-books, etc.) via best-of-breed chapters
• Index all offerings by book, chapter, section
• Permit user to search browse free
• (using MMR, summarization, etc.)
• Download/print or bind--ship for a fee

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IR-Related eCommerce Business Ideas ePUB (2)

• ePUB Customized Publishing
• Assemble for user a customized bundle
• (e.g. Ch 3-7 of "Intro to IR" Ch 5-6 of "Web
  IR" Ch 2 of "Applied Linear Algebra") ?
  Web-based eCom textbook
• Print, bind and ship 50 copies
• ...or ship single copy electronically (e.g. via
  PDF with built-in watermark)

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ePUB Variant

• eBooks Sell eBook Content on line
• Books, magazines, comic-books, reference, ...
• Make your site content searchable
• (Not just title/author as in Amazon)
• First mover and scaling advantages
• Charge for content download over web (eArticles,
  eBooks, eSections of books) as well as
  traditional shipping of printed books, magazines,
  etc. Pay for what you read (only).

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IR-Related eCommerce Business Ideas eFACT

• eFACT Universal Q/A Database
• Goal Answer any question over web
• Create large FAQ incrementally, categorized by
  subject areas
• Have humans answer questions over web Pay for
  answers. Payment free subscription or .
• If new question matches, give answer, else send
  to humans and resort to meta-search for relevant
  web-pages (not an answer, but best one can do for
  now), and email answer later.
• Essentially do AskJeeves the right way

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IR-Related eCommerce Business Ideas iSELL

• iSELL Meta Auction eSite
• Goal The Metacrawler of Web Auction Sites
• User describes product she wants to sell
• iSELL finds best match to auction sites(s) that
  sell(s) such products (similarity between
  description and auction offerings past and
  present)
• ...or auction site that gets best prices
• iSELLs metaform automatically connects and lists
  product in one or several auction sites and
  de-lists when sold.
• iSELL gets a cut of the selling price ad
  revenues

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IR-Related eCommerce Business Ideas WebRATE

• WebRATE Rating Service for eSites
• Goal Become Nielsens or CU or USNWR rating
  agency of web sites
• Find similarity to other sites, ..
• Sites pay for ratings by content, traffic, etc.
• Perhaps also subscription fee, or marketing data
  (traffic, stickiness, favorites entries,)

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ASP eBusiness WebMINER

• WebMINER Provide data-mining service
• B2B eService, licensing, consulting
• Download data via web from customers together
  with objective-function attributes
• Charge for rules, patterns discovered, or charge
  for data-volume mined
• Subscription model for mining data streams

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eBusiness Ingredients

• B2B Examples
• Indexing intranets and document DBs
• search engines, text extraction, ...
• Web-infrastructure optimization
• Akamai, hosting services, ISPs, ...
• Supplier networks, reverse auctions
• FreeMarkets, Commerce One, I2, ...
• Full N-to-N eMarketplaces
• Ariba, Dynamix, ...
• Financial Services
• Treasurypoint.com, MyCFO.com, ...

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eBusiness Ingredients (2)

• First Mover Advantage Often Wins
• Amazon, buy.com gt other eTailers
• Yahoo gt other portals
• Ebay gtgt other auction sites
• Dell-on-web gt other web PC vendors

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eBusiness Ingredients (3)

• But, Better Technology Also Wins
• On B2C search-portals
• Google gt AltaVista Lycos gt WebCrawler
• Though WebCrawler was "first"
• On licensable B2B search engines
• Google-engine gt Inktomi Verity gt others
• though Verity came first

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eBusiness Ingredients (4)

• Find New Niche in eEcology
• FreeMarkets in B2B reverse auctions
• Treasurypoint/Wisdom Managing and optimizing
  corporate treasuries (ASP)
• IBM and BEA in web-based middleware
• Dynamix Generalized trading engine

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eBusiness Ingredients (5)

• Revenue Counts, Profits too
• Low-margin commodity failures
• Webvan.com, reel.com, pets.com bite the dust
• Must monetize service
• advertising, transaction fee, subscription fee
• Scaling really counts
• Marginal cost of new customers for portals is
  virtually zero, but advertising and subscription
  revenue scales linearly.

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Extending the TraditionalCorporation to
eBusiness (1)

• Q Who is the largest system integrator for web
  applications?
• A IBM
• Q Who are the largest consultant for web
  applications?
• A IBM and Accenture
• Q Who is the largest seller of web-related
  software?
• A Microsoft
• Q Who is the largest software provider to
  eCommerce sites?
• A ORACLE
• Q Who is the largest hardware provider to
  eCommerce sites?
• A SUN Microsystems
• Q Who is the largest provider of bandwidth for
  eCommerce?
• A ...

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Extending the TraditionalCorporation to
eBusiness (2)

• Who got rich from the 1849 California gold rush?
• Most "infrastructure" providers
• (sellers of digging tools, tents, supplies, ...)
• Most "information" providers
• (geologists, map-makers, guides, ...)
• Very few gold prospectors
• (but a handful got really rich)
• There is a lesson here for eCommerce.

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Ingredients for eAdjunct Businesses

• Productivity Enhancements via Web
• Supplier network reverse auctions
• Manufacturers procuring raw materials, ...
• Far-flung employee connectivity
• Sale force with up-to-the-minute updates
• Field consultant -- domain expert matching
• Large organic consulting organizations

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Ingredients for eAdjunct Businesses (2)

• Expanded Sales Outlet
• "Clicks and mortar" retail Dell, Intuit, BN
• Wholesalers accelerating inventory turnover
• Derivative Businesses
• ISP hosted offering of software services Tax
  preparation, bond/equities trading, ...
• Outsourced business function via Web-ISP
  Payroll, treasury, software production,

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eBusiness Plan Considerations (1)

• eBusiness is Foremost a Business
• eBusiness plan Business plan ( more)
• Concept, product, market, differentiators,
  revenue model, sales channels, marketing,
  management, pro-forma financials, ... are all
  needed.

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eBusiness Plan Considerations (2)

• eBusiness Also Needs
• Clear technological edge if in any established
  eMarket. There are no geographical niches.
• Or, be first mover in a new market
• Need to establish market size and penetration
• Need to address rapid comoditization issue
• What will keep copycats away? Patent?
• Rapid market dominance?
• How to reach eMarket (e.g. via search engines
  with methods discussed earlier)

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eBusiness Plan considerations (3)

• If brand new business (e.g. eCLIP, ePUB)
• Size of eMarket for new product/service
• How to reach and educate the market
• How to monetize product/service quickly
• How to play for market dominance
• Technological edge (complexity, patents, )
• First-mover dominance or contractual ties
• Chapter 2 How to expand business seamlessly

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eBusiness Plan considerations (4)

• If new instance of old business (e.g. Search)
• What is the better mousetrap (how did Google
  displace Altavista Lycos as premier engine)?
• How not to get displaced in turn (patents, )
• How to overcome first-mover advantages
• How to better monetize product/service (e.g.
  Googles query-targeted advertisement)
• Chapter 2 How to expand beyond established

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eBusiness Plan Considerations (5)

• If e-branch of established traditional business
• How to actively leverage existing business (e.g.
  bn.com leveraging book inventory). Else see 3,4.
• Price according to e-competition
• Leverage brand name in clicks-and-mortar
• Monetize e-advantage (increased sales via new
  sales channel, or efficient e-service to
  traditional products, )