[conspire] Search strategies (was: WiFi adapter)

[Rick Moen]

I wrote:

> This is why one of the key skills of the modern age -- at least, in some
> areas of knowledge -- is the effective use of Internet search, i.e., how
> to find productive keywords and phrases to search for, how (sometimes)
> to limit search scope to promising outlets rather than blanket-searching
> the entire Web, how to winnow out probably unreliable data, and so on.

Long ago, I had an idea for a business niche that might not have been
attempted yet:  marketing firms offering carefully crafted Internet
obscurity.

Now, I'm not talking about the business specialty euphemised as
reputation management
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation_management), the firms that
pull out every possible dirty trick to whitewash or overwhelm
deroagatory public comments about client businesses and individuals.
I'm also not talking about the very obscure firms hired by many extremely
wealthy individuals to quash publicity and keep their names out of the
papers.

I'm envisioning a firm that will advise businesses about how to describe
and name products and services so that information about them will be
deliberately difficult to find by most Internet users using search
engines, choosing names and descriptions selected so that they will be
buried in irrelevent noise on different subjects entirely.

The idea came to me, one day, when I was trying to find information
about some Unix utility or software project whose name, entered into
search engines without other disambiguating tricks, found nothing
relevant because of way too many false matches from pop culture.  And I
thought, 'Hey, there's a business model in this, I'm sure.'

If you found such a firm and make a fortune, please send me a few stock
options.