Can you limit my Keyword Search to just ‘800’ numbers?
No, we can’t limit the Keyword Lookup to just ‘800′ for three reasons. First of all, it’s the computer’s job to be thorough and provide all of the options. Second of all if your company name were available in an 888 number, you wouldn’t really want us not to tell you would you? So then you’ve already determined that it may be a preference or a priority but it’s not a deal breaker. And third and probably the most important reason is that our goal is to help you actually get a good toll free number, not to waste your time.
That would be kind of like asking Match.com to only send you prospective matches that are “super models”. You could meet a lot of nice people with match.com (I met my wife there), but it wouldn’t be smart for match.com to allow people to limit their matches like that.
No matter how good our computer program is, it’s still your job to sort through the options and pick the best one. If there was an easy way for the computer to make a list of just the numbers that are worth a million dollars or more, do you think there would be any left? It’s not 1992 any more. If there was an easy way to find just the very best numbers don’t you think other people would have already have tried it?
Take the extreme version of that question for a moment. Lets say that the computer could limit it to just ‘800′, only 7 digits, positive and popular terms etc, and even figure out exactly the very best number. We know that’s not possible but if it was, would you really want the computer limiting you to just one number? Would you really feel comfortable taking that one number without seeing anything else? Now add into the equation that the absolute perfect number isn’t possible, because again it’s not 1992. Would you really trust the computer enough and KNOW that it was honestly the best option possible for you if it wasn’t your dream number?
No, you couldn’t do that because it’s your job to make that determination. Just like it’s the computer’s job to do all of the research and send you all of the options. If you’d like proof that the computer can’t really tell which number is really the best, just ask yourself if you want the first number in the list of disconnected numbers or the list of available numbers in the Keyword Lookup. They are sorted by value as best the computer can figure. So try the Keyword Lookup and ask yourself if it would be helpful for us to send you just that first number. If that’s really all you want, just don’t look at the rest of the list. The computer won’t feel bad that you don’t appreciate all of the hard work it had to do for you.
This question is similar to another about limiting the search results to just 7 digits.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Manny Camacho says:
February 22, 2008 at 11:24 am
Looking at your list, it contains specific aircraft manufacturers names (i.e., Cessna, Piper, Yak, Mig, etc) that, since we do not limit ourselves to any one make, we could not use as any part of the vanity number/name.
There is also no need for any specific type of aircraft model (i.e., AN124, AN225 - these are Russian airplanes (Antonov) anyway)
Apparently, “flying” can be associated with “fly fishing”. That is not our category, so I am not interested in (i.e., Reel, rods, line, casting, tackle, yacht, etc.)
I despise Viagra junk emails! And, I am surprised to see vanity numbers with the word “Viagra” within the report! How did they get in there??
There are certain words that I would not choose due to their similarity in sound - possibly causing confusion and/or repetition or clarification on our part each time we were to verbally give out the phone number (i.e., Aero-Arrow, Flyer-Flier, etc).
I wish there was a way (such as on EBay) where one could delete certain words that you definitely DON’T want (i.e., naval, fishing, tying, filters, soviet, fares, conditioning, rv, boxes, army, navy, STOL, WWI, WWII, music, kit, etc.).
Just trying to be helpful - until a great one comes along. The above would probably delete more than half of the report and make it easier to read. But, I realize this might not be possible.
Thank you for your efforts, Manny Camacho.
P.S. You had a great one that I passed along to a friend who flies “war birds” (800-War-Birds). I gave him your website address. He didn’t need it, but knew someone who might.
Manny Camacho Jr.
Bill Quimby (510 comments.) says:
February 23, 2008 at 1:34 am
The keyword Lookup looks for phrases that contain your keyword. This is important because if someone put in LIMO as their keyword it will find things like LIMO DRIVER, even though driver isn’t usually a word we would combine with most other keywords. The bottom section for more creative options will take it one step further and look for related terms that don’t contain the term within the first 7 digits. That will find something like PROM NIGHT or MY STRETCH for the word LIMO. It is even further from your keyword and is like throwing mud up against the wall in some ways. But that creativity can be very valuable, especially when you’re in the brainstorming stage.
It would certainly be nice if the computer could just tell what you thought was appropriate or good for your project but that’s the epitome of easier to say than do. Discerning user intent is the holy grail of search, but in reality since there’s no way for the computer to do that perfectly, it is better to err on the side of providing too many options than to eliminate the wrong ones that you want.
Some keywords are too broad and don’t have enough focus. I think the Viagra comes from the term BUY. I agree that isn’t a great combination. But without looking for phrases, BUY would probably be a pretty difficult term to use at all. It has a LOT of phrases but there aren’t very many standard prefixes or suffixes that would really work for a word like that.
We don’t have “-wordsâ€? like search engines do. It’s already so complicated to add that won’t be very easy and most users wouldn’t ultimately use it. I admit that our interface for the terms is extremely simplistic. There’s no login system to edit your terms.
Maybe we can add that sometime in the future. But we have sooo many things to add, that it’s hard to keep track of them all. They seem to pop up a lot faster than we get to them, but that’s what makes this so fun for us.
.Bill Quimby.
Bill Quimby (510 comments.) says:
June 19, 2008 at 12:25 am
I saw a commercial for 877-GOODYEAR today. I researched it a little and actually found that Goodyear sued Corporate Image Marketing, Vanity800.com and Tony Kinnear over trademark infringement. I just saw commercials with it on TV so it looks like they got that one. I’ll review and go over this in another post with anything interesting. But the point here was that Goodyear didn’t just say if I can’t get the “800″ I don’t care. That would be stupid for them to say, so although it’s OK to want the 877 it’s dumb to preclude everything else.
Bill Quimby