Just wanted to note that although google does a great job, relying on it to
buy something could end up
in boosted search results.
I found google to be accurate for private searches but boosted for
commercial ones.
No sweat, just my 2 cents.
Bart Bervoets
Of course, in this case it's not just a matter of finding information, but
getting an evaluation.
I was once asked to find a cheap source of button cells for something for a
friend, and doing a websearch on the battery number turned up about one place.
Obviously it was a place to get them, but there was no clue about whether
the business really existed beyond a website, or if they did have stock
how reliable they were.
It amazes me to see people thinking they can have a business if they
have a website, and then they worry about how they rank in a search engine
return. The fallacy is that they aren't doing all the things a business
needs to do to make it viable, like advertising and getting customers
in early who will hopefully talk about their good experience, and getting
talked about in old media. The sorts of things that tell the potential
customer that it is a real business, and people have bought from it.
I suppose it is easy to find companies that do mail order in electronics.
I've never searched, and my first thought is figuring out suitable
searchwords. But unless someone finds a place where actual customers
are discussing the companies, it won't give an independent verification
of the business.
When I was a kid and first went to buy parts, I did pick a name out of
the Yellow Pages. Of course, there was a real store so I could evaluate
the store first hand, rather than sending money off to some faraway place.
It turned out to be a good choice, the place was a combination old style
parts store and surplus outlet (ETCO here in Canada, for those who
might remember the time when they did mailorder), and I later discovered
there were other stores of the same nature clustered nearby. But, I
could have just as easily picked some other place, and had a bad experience.
Michael
