Surfers beware: The search engine may not be what it seems

Portals are useful. They're glossy guides for Internet surfers who want to avoid the bewildering randomness of the Web. Dealing in millions of viewers, they've also become a marketing mecca for the business world. But beware. Behind the scenes of Lycos, Altavista, Netcenter and other Internet brand names, marketing deals are shaping the functions of these portals. This is not necessarily a good thing for the ordinary user.

One of the features that made the portal site what it is today is the search engine. These engines trawl the Web in different ways to catalogue what's 'out there' and then throw up appropriate Web pages when a user enters a key word.

A user would like to think this process is neutral. When you go into a travel agent, you hope the assistant will exhaust every opportunity to find you a good deal. In the same way, you hope search results will be as far reaching as possible. This may not happen if more marketing deals take hold.

Just as many travel agents are linked to certain airlines, search engines are becoming linked by marketing contracts to certain commercial entities. Lycos has started 'selling' words to companies. A company representative proudly explained the deal: Lycos may sell the word 'car' to Ford motor company. This means every time you search for cars on Lycos, Ford will automatically appear at the top of your list.

Lycos isn't the only site that will be doing this sort of thing. Netscape's next version of Navigator will prioritise areas on its Web site using 'smart browsing'. Microsoft uses MSN in a similar way.

The Internet will become a marketing platform for companies with the money to tweak it discreetly. It could also help to wipe out companies that can't afford to do these deals - and restrict choice for the ordinary citizen of cyberspace.

Once upon a time, Net evangelists claimed the Web was a level playing field. Now, those companies with the money are making it tip in their favour.