Surf Canyon for Firefox

A newer version of Surf Canyon for Firefox is available.

• 1.0 stars

  "Undisclosed Sponsors Hijack Search Results"

  September 23, 2009  |   By AdamNYC

  Pros

  Rearranges and re-orders search results interspersing "sponsor" results without disclosing that they're paid or distinguishing them. Whether it makes Google results "better" strikes me as an open question.

  Cons

  Paid sponsor interference with order of Google search results, eliminating the neutrality of Google to benefit those who can afford to pay for higher placement.

  Summary

  Techcrunch.com, which maybe I'm wrong but I consider a reliable source, says of Search Canyon as well as an apparently similar app called ManagedQ: "[N]either one comes close to offering a better overall search experience than Google does on its own.
  
  "Surf Canyon is an application that sits on top of regular search results....(Google doesn?t like it when other Websites re-order its search rankings, but Surf Canyon doesn?t rely on Google?s APIs to do what it does and thus feels that it is not bound by Google?s restrictions)."
  
  The Search Canyon company itself, as quoted in the Crunchbase.com company profiles section, states, among other things: "The [Search Canyon] technology is...suited for targeting sponsored links, benefiting both users and advertisers."
  
  It's certainly clear that advertisers benefit, but I'm dubious that users benefit from this paid sponsor interference with their search results.
  
  Updated on May 8, 2013

  Belated thanks for your belated response. But please note it's misleading to say the least to respond to a review almost three years after it was written with a comment stating that the article I quoted was four years old. If you've made progress, great, but you show a lack of integrity by denying the accuracy of a review that was (at minimum) accurate when written.
  
  Again, I do appreciate your response, even three years after my review was written. No objections to that. Just please keep it honest.

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1 reply to this review

• Reply by surfcanyon on March 8, 2012

  Surf Canyon does not intersperse sponsored results and does not add any sponsored results to Google's search page. All of the Surf Canyon "recommendations" are organic results.
  
  The Techcrunch article to which you are referring (http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/19/hijacking-search-surf-canyon-and-managedq-rethink-the-search-experience/) also says this:
  
  "[Surf Canyon] offer[s] improvements to the pared-down search interface that we are all used to and point[s] to areas where search can be made better."
  
  "... what I like best about Surf Canyon is the interface. It doesn't take you to another Web page. The recommended results just appear underneath the appropriate link. It feels more like an application than a cumbersome Website where you have to click through multiple pages to find what you want. Google could take a lesson in interface design from Surf Canyon here with all of its Ajax goodness."
  
  The article is from four years ago and we've made considerable progress since then.

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