search engine domination

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Halfdeck

Do surfers really need hundreds of other LLs that offer less content based on a copycat business model?

Certainly not. But that's the beauty of building any type of business when there is plenty of pre-existing competition. It's a long, rough road uphill, and one is more likely to fail than truly compete, but the possibility of success is possible - somewhat. (And I realize that I'm speaking from the position of never being successful.) I'm not sure if Google penalizes the newer, smaller link list, but I'm fairly confident that they favor Dave, Greenie, Tommy, and Emerald (SG). But is what I refer to as 'favor' merely due to the amount of content and inbound links or does Google have a secret list of trusted sites with a strong history of being what the surfer wants?

I very much agree with your thinking outside the box statement and I have some interesting ideas for my newest list. But I've been afraid of breaking too far from the pack of out fear that Google will suddenly drop me (though my ideas are nothing special) and that my fellow link listers will call me crazy. And then again, I think it could help improve the site from both a SE and surfer perspective. I'm conflicted.