搜尋引擎 不再一枝獨秀(英漢對照)

■ 摘自讀金融時報學英文 Search dominates advertising on the internet. The typical internet advertisement used to be a pop-up that got irritatingly in the way of what you were trying to read. It is now a snippet of text displayed on a search engine, linked to what you are searching for. Such advertisements account for 40 per cent of internet advertising revenues-double the percentage on display ads. 搜尋引擎統治了網際網路廣告領域。過去，典型的網路廣告採取的是彈出式視窗方式，往往在你試圖閱讀頁面內容時彈出來，妨礙了你的閱讀。而現在，網路廣告已成為搜尋引擎顯示的文本內容的一部分，與你正在搜尋的內容相關聯。這類廣告占網路廣告收入的40%，比圖片廣告高出一倍。 There are reasons for this. Search advertisements are more efficient than display adverts in, for example, glossy magazines. The user often signals a direct interest in buying something, perhaps by typing "flowers" as a search keyword. And the advertiser only has to pay for the advertisement when the user is actually interested enough to click on it. 會這樣是有原因的。搜尋廣告比登在時尚雜誌上的圖片廣告更有效。搜尋引擎用戶通常會直接表達購物興趣，如果鍵入關鍵字「花」進行搜尋，這說明他可能想買花。只有當用戶對廣告確實感興趣並點選後，廣告商才需為此付費。 But, looked at another way, the search engines run by Google, Yahoo and MSN have a weirdly high share of internet advertising. Most people spend 95 per cent of their time on the internet doing other things than searching. They read news and entertainment sites, send e-mail or instant messages, blog about their beliefs or even display indecent photographs of themselves. 不過，從另一個角度來看，Google、雅虎和MSN旗下的搜尋引擎擁有的網路廣告市場占有率高到不可思議的程度。多數人把95%的上網時間用於搜尋以外的其他事情。他們閱讀新聞和娛樂網站、收發郵件或即時資訊、在部落格上抒發信仰，甚或展示自己的不雅照片。 So 5 per cent is the number that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN Search should worry about: the amount of internet time devoted to searching. Perhaps it is even lower, since a lot of searches are so broad and unconnected with any impulse to spend money that no one will buy a linked advertisement. 因此，5%這個網路用戶用於搜尋的時間比例才是Google、雅虎和微軟的MSN Search應該擔心的。而這個比例甚至可能更低，因為許多搜尋內容泛泛，與購物動機無任何關聯，因此沒人願意購買一個連接地址廣告。 Advertising does not work this way in other forms of media. On television and radio and in newspapers and magazines, adverts are sold according to ratings and circulation. This means the number of people who read each edition of a magazine, or who view each showing of a programme. Publishers and broadcasters gain advertising by offering the chance to reach these people in a block. 其他媒體的廣告模式不是這樣的。電視、廣播或報刊雜誌的廣告銷售價格是根據收視率、收聽率或發行量而定，即廣告價格取決於讀者、聽眾及觀眾的數量。出版商和廣播／電視公司藉著向廣告客戶提供大批接觸這些群眾的機會，賺取廣告收入。 If internet advertising followed suit, revenues would not be concentrated overwhelmingly on a small portion of internet traffic, but spread more evenly. In practice,however, it is hard to find sites with enough traffic (and therefore advertising potential) to attract large blocks of advertising. There is fierce competition to place brand advertisements on the few that do exist,such as the home pages of Yahoo or AOL.com. 如果網路廣告效仿這種做法，其收入將不會高度集中於一小部分網路流量，而是更均勻地分布開來。但在實際狀況中很難找到擁有足夠流量（從而具備廣告潛力）的網站來吸引大批的廣告。也因此，要在少數訪問流量巨大的網站，例如雅虎或美國線上的主頁上刊登品牌廣告，競爭相當激烈。 The internet's fractured nature brings a second problem for smaller sites. A publisher knows a lot about the profiles and interests of those who buy its magazines and can use this information to attract advertisers. But it may know little about those reading an article in an online publication because many have clicked through on impulse from other sites and stay only long enough to finish it. 網路的「分散性」也給較小的網站帶來第二個問題。出版商非常清楚那些購買其雜誌的讀者的特徵和興趣，並能利用這些資訊來吸引廣告客戶。但它對那些線上閱讀者知之甚少，因為很多人是從其他網站的鏈結進入的，他們停留的時間只限於讀完文章。 The advertising gulf between search engines and the rest of the internet has so far played into the hands of companies such as Google and Yahoo. But their strength could become a vulnerability if other sites and publishers find a way to redress the imbalance by selecting their own advertisements more effectively. 搜尋引擎和網路其他業務之間在廣告方面存在很大差距，讓Google和雅虎這樣的公司占了很大便宜。不過，如果其他網站和出版商找到方法，通過更有效地選擇自己的廣告來糾正這種不平衡，Google和雅虎的強勢也可能變為弱勢。 One method of doing so that is attracting interest among advertisers and publishers is so-called behavioural targeting. This involves an internet user being shown advertisements that are likely to interest them, no matter which site they happen to be browsing at the time. The same BMW advert might appear whether they are looking at general news on CNN.com or videos on another site. 方法之一就是所謂的「行為目標」。這種方法正在吸引廣告客戶和出版商的興趣。採用這種方法，不論網路用戶當時瀏覽哪個網頁，都能讓他們看到可能會吸引他們的廣告。不管他們是在瀏覽CNN網站綜合新聞，還是其他網站，同樣的BMW廣告都可能出現在他們的螢幕上。 But can search engines maintain a 40 per cent share of advertising on a 5 per cent share of internet viewing indefinitely That seems unlikely, no matter how smart their engineers and how valuable the signals their users send. As Mr Reyes bluntly indicated, Google and its peers have already made their easiest money. 僅僅憑藉5%的上網時間，搜尋引擎能保持40%的廣告占有率嗎？不管其工程師多聰明，不管其用戶發出的信號多有價值，這都不太可能。正如雷斯直言指出的那樣，Google及其同類公司最容易賺的錢已經賺到了。 （本文摘自培生出版《讀金融時報學英文 3》） 【2006/09/03 經濟日報】