Logos help build brand awareness, and upstart search engine Snap makes it easy for you to add your corporate image to search results.
Snap, a search engine that went live last October, is marching to the beat of a different drummer. The search engine is the brainchild of Idealab, the company that launched Overture, among other ventures. You may remember Snap from the heyday of the dotcom boom—a short-lived search site that was owned by television network NBC.
The new Snap uses the same name but has nothing else in common with its predecessor. The new search engine combines technologies from X1 (the same company that powers Yahoo's desktop search) and data from Gigablast, Looksmart and a number of "anonymous" ISPs.
Unlike the major search engines, Snap allows you to upload a corporate logo that will be displayed with search results. It's easy to do: Simply visit Snap's Add Your Logo or product image and follow the instructions there. There are a few requirements: You must be affiliated with a site to submit its logo; the image can only be associated with the root domain; the image must conform to a few technical guidelines.
All images are "verified" before appearing on search results, a process that can take up to several weeks.
Snap already displays images from some sites—particularly well-known brands or web sites. For example, a search for ipod shows logos from Apple, Amazon, C|Net and others in search results.
AltaVista briefly experimented with something similar back in 2001, with "listing enhancements," but that program quietly disappeared.
Want to know more about Snap? Gary blogged about its launch in Snap To It: New Search Engine Launches, describing Snap's efforts to harness "user intention" to shape search results. The company also has a unique approach to advertising, allowing marketers to choose from several payment plans including traditional cost-per-click, fixed cost-per-action or variable cost-per-action.
Snap is also quite transparent when it comes to reporting on its performance. Danny wrote about Snap's unique approach to sharing stats in Snap Stats: Seeing What's Up With Snap.com. The company provides far more information than any other search engine, including total searches, click-thrus generated, and even revenues generated on a daily basis.
Want to discuss or comment on this story? Join the Google to Snap? discussion in the Search Engine Watch forums.
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