Just what is it that you NEED to know?
One of the many search related newsletters that I subscribe to informed me recently about the changes taking place at About.com:
Blaming the sorry state of the online advertising market, About.com has laid off about 20% of its staff and axed more than 300 of its Guide sites. The company also plans to shift the focus of the portal away from information-oriented niche sites on a variety of subjects to a model
emphasizing subscription, transaction and e-commerce revenues.
...
"About is going to be much more based on what users need to know, rather
than something for everyone," said About spokesperson Tabatha Sturm. A
revamped version of the portal planned for launch later this year, known
as About 3.0, will place more emphasis on consumer reviews, ecommerce, and
comparison shopping.
There's really no need to read between the lines here. Simply put, "information-oriented niche sites" didn't bring in the revenues. But it's still hard to understand precisely what the difference is between "something for everyone" and "what users need to know". There's some sort of euphemism hiding out here, and it seems to be that what we need to know has to do with consuming and shopping.
About.com, definitely one of the best and richest sites for information for the sake of information, isn't alone when it comes to counting revenues, and this basic problem is taking its toll on the very basics of internet searching.
Go to: The Boidem goes shopping.