Altaf B.
Web Analytics Implementation Engineer Marketing Insights and Operations at Adobe
Could you train a willing high school drop out to professionaly search the web?
Provide an alternative method of earning a living to the people who live in an economically depressed areas of our country. The willing population can learn how to look up information on the web and sell their services online from home. Given the affordable cost of a computer and an internet connection, is it possible to create a new breed of web searchers? What challenges would you see in pulling off such a program?
Clarification added January 22, 2008:
The trained folks would work from home helping people on the road by looking up information online. The target audience would not be someone who has access to computer and is at home or office.
Clarification added January 23, 2008:
The idea is to keep the jobs on shore by retraining our population who is suffering from the digital divide and can be helped.
Good Answers (2)
William L.
Deputy Attorney General at New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety, Division of Law
Best Answers in: Government Policy (2), Corporate Law (2), Nonprofit Management (2), Regulation and Compliance (1), Education and Schools (1), Occupational Training (1), Treaties, Agreements and Organizations (1), Intellectual Property (1), Employment and Labor Law (1), Property Law (1), Change Management (1), Career Management (1)
I think your idea is an ambitious way of both bridging the "digital divide" and cashing in on our growing need for instant information. However, I see 3 challenges.
1. Availability of mobile internet - the market for a service like yours, marketed to cell phone users away from their computers, might diminish as more people adopt the iPhone and similar web-enabled devices. However, for now, I am intrigued by the idea of a service that can do a search for me beyond just giving me a name/phone number like traditional 411.
2. Quality of search results - for most common search questions, the first 10-20 results (and more often the first 5) are enough to supply a reasonably accurate answer. However, I routinely do searches where I need to go through 50 or so results to find something meaningful - for example, searches for people with common first and last names (there must be about 100 people named "William Lim") or searches for people without a prominent web presence.
3. Proprietary databases - Google and other public search engines are fine for most topics, but (speaking only for the legal profession) many times a search will require access to very expensive academic or professional databases like LexisNexis, WestLaw, Factiva, JSTOR, ProQuest, EBSCO, or Muse. Training to use these databases, especially Lexis and WestLaw, is also expensive. However, I think there might be a niche in legal research for you, as an on-demand service might appeal to small/solo firms, academic researchers away from their home universities, or people without lawyers who are representing themselves.
Hope I've been able to spark some ideas for you, and best of luck!
Ajay O.
Founder ,Decisionstats.com
Best Answers in: Business Analytics (2), Commercial Real Estate (1), Personnel Policies (1), Staffing and Recruiting (1), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Business Plans (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
Yes. Its possible. I have seen high school graduates do it India.
Basic techniques of search are quite simple to teach, and if the incentives are aligned correctly in slabs, it would be a great program. It could also be source of extra income for high schoolers who need some extra cash.
More Answers (7)
Helen B.
Talent Acquisition Specialist at Ergo
Best Answers in: Currency Markets (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
To answer your question: yes, anyone with a basic understanding of IT and who knows how to use a search engine can be trained to do this on a "professional" level.
My question to you, though, would be "why?" What are the advantages to the end user?
George A.
Executive Coach for Disruptive Physicians at Anderson & Anderson, Executive Coaching/Anger Management
Best Answers in: Small Business (5), Using LinkedIn (5), Organizational Development (4), Professional Networking (4), Occupational Training (3), Career Management (3), Education and Schools (2), Mentoring (2), Starting Up (2), Travel Tools (1), Certification and Licenses (1), Staffing and Recruiting (1), Advertising (1), Business Development (1), Public Relations (1), Customer Relationship Management (1), Change Management (1), E-Commerce (1)
I like the idea. And, of course, the answer is yes.
George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF
Links:
Tyler H.
Director, Corporate Development, M&A Integrations at Adobe
Best Answers in: Derivatives Markets (2), Hedge Funds (2), Corporate Debt (1), IPO (1), Economics (1), Compensation and Benefits (1), Public Relations (1), Bond Markets (1), Personal Investing (1), Retirement and Estate Planning (1), E-Commerce (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
"What challenges would you see in pulling off such a program?"
Who would pay for this service, when it is a) free to anyone with a connection and browser, and b) even a high school drop out could do it?
Would the business model be based on pay per use, subscription, or subsidized by a 3rd party (i.e. advertiser)? Is there a model you have in mind to replicate?
Christopher O.
Research Analyst
Best Answers in: Mentoring (1), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Change Management (1), Organizational Development (1), Nonprofit Fundraising (1), Nonprofit Management (1), Professional Books and Resources (1), Professional Networking (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
This business is not scalable fast. There is no profitable business model because there is already search engines on the net that are called meta-search engines. Meta-search engines are free and they are an "easy" sell because there is no saleperson involved. You need to "sell" the service. The only market is technologically illiterate people which are using old search types such as a telephone book or friend.
Excerpt from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia:
A meta-search engine is a search engine that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and returns the results from each one. Meta search enables users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines simultaneously. Since it is hard to catalogue the entire web, the idea is that by searching multiple search engines you are able to search more of the web in less time and do it with only one click.
Venkatram K.
Practical polymath
Best Answers in: Treaties, Agreements and Organizations (1), Internet Marketing (1), Commodity Markets (1), Quality Management and Standards (1), Computers and Software (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
Definitely....there are several initiatives like this in India
Lori R.
Customer Experience Coordinator at NoveList/EBSCO Publishing
Best Answers in: Job Search (1), Occupational Training (1), Staffing and Recruiting (1), Professional Networking (1)
Isn't this what libraries already do for free?
Vic U.
Associate Professor at Auburn University and Owner, interactive Point of View
Best Answers in: Education and Schools (1), Occupational Training (1), Change Management (1), Enterprise Software (1), Computers and Software (1), Software Development (1)
On operational grounds, I would think that this is not a viable business. The main problem is that it doesn't offer a significant time or cost saving to the customer.
Assuming that you can get your labor force trained to be effective searchers, they still won't know what they are searching for until they can get the client to tell them. That 'meeting of the minds' is likely to be time consuming for both parties. For your low-wage workforce that's not a problem. For your client, it is. It may take as much effort to tell your workers what to search for as it takes the client to do it themselves.
Moreover, there is an even more fundamental problem. The delegated search is unlikely to deliver the quality of output that a first-person search would achieve. The reason is that, by its nature, search involves uncertainty. I'm sure you have looked things up on the web, only to be surprised by what you found, and thus sent off in a new and ultimately more fruitful search direction. The originator of the search would handle this automatically. A delegated searcher may not be able to do it at all.
Sorry to be negative, but that's how I see it.
