A startup is testing a subscription model for search engines

Re:A startup is testing a subscription model for search engines by smnrchrds on Monday July 06, 2020 @04:25PM (#23752336)

Per usage pricing will result in misaligned incentives. It will be in the interest of the search engine provider to provide worse results, so you have to make multiple searches and some trial and errors with keywords until you get the result you were looking for.

In the end, the company notices that when they make improvements to their algorithms, their revenue goes down. So they stop making improvements.

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Re:A startup is testing a subscription model for search engines by Closi on Monday July 06, 2020 @04:41PM (#23752511)

Counterpoint: If they gave me terrible results I would just go to another service.

If it's pay-per-search there is zero friction for me to go to another provider.

It's probably not a practical charging mechanism, but it's an interesting thought. I also don't believe a monthly charging subscription is the right model but this is a tough one to get right.

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Re:A startup is testing a subscription model for search engines by smnrchrds on Monday July 06, 2020 @04:52PM (#23752625)

> Counterpoint: If they gave me terrible results I would just go to another service.

There would be an optimum point where the results are good enough that people won't leave the service en masse, but bad enough that they spend way more than necessary on it. The optimum point is where the profits will be maximized for the search provider. Thanks to the advances is AI/ML/Data Science methods and tools, a savvy company will find this point and stays there until the point moves.

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