- Wording used in Looksmart's announcement emails seems to deliberately mislead customers into believing their directory listings are going to disappear if they do nothing. The fact is that listings may or may not be removed - depending on how "essential" site is deemed to be by Looksmart Editors.

- Sites previously ranking well via their existing listings will, in all likelihood, lose these rankings whether they activate their PPC account or not, because preference will now be given to those who buy "relevancy keywords" as part of their listing.

- By their own admission, Looksmart is unlikely to delist big brand sites, even if they refuse to pay for new scheme, because they are "critical to relevance". But wasn't this new scheme meant to benefit SMALL business?

- Looksmart claim new program creates a lower cost of entry for small business whereas start up costs actually come in at $50 more than old Basic Submit model used by those with smaller budgets, not to mention additional click costs.

- Apparently, LookSmart have been trying to force companies whose sites were included in directory for free to convert to their paid programs. Looksmart's attitude to these sites is "having a free ride doesn't help business model" and if they don't convert, they are likely to be removed.

- Under old submission programs, a single web site could submit up to five different URLs. The new program institutes a one URL per site limit, dramatically reducing ability to target and direct traffic to most relevant areas of your site.

- Many people who have activated their accounts and already received notification that their "free" clicks are used up are checking their logs and finding discrepancies between number of clicks Looksmart say they have provided and number of actual clicks to their site.

- Looksmart had audacity to call this new model an "upgrade" for existing clients, when in fact it reduces value of their listing incredibly.

- According to industry leader Danny Sullivan, in past few days, LookSmart has been automatically migrating accounts to new system regardless of whether customers give their permission by manually "activating".

Being an SEO, I have multiple Looksmart accounts for my own sites and those of my clients. I've already received six "Listing Traffic Interruption" emails. But I won't be giving them another cent. Why? Because Looksmart.com no longer offers me or my clients value for money, for one thing. But more importantly, deceptive nature of their announcement and their decision to force existing customers to roll-over into new system instead of "grandfathering" their listings demonstrates to me a complete lack of understanding of their own market. To put profits before customers might bring some short-term shareholder joy, but it will also guarantee a growing exodus of disappointed clients and users as they find more cost-effective and relevant search alternatives. In my book that's search engine suicide. Search engines and directories have done some pretty shifty things over years, but never before have I seen such arrogance or disdain for customers as Looksmart have shown in past two weeks. A post at Web Master World search engine forums sums it up nicely: "L$ is like mob and they just busted my kneecaps..." In fact this whole episode reeks of desperation, profiteering and deception on such a grand scale, you have to wonder if they are in serious financial muck. Whatever their motivations, it looks like they've already pressed self-destruct button.

------------------------- Disclaimer - The views expressed in this article are personal opinion of author and do not necessarily reflect views of Web Rank as a whole. In providing this information, we make every effort to ensure it is correct and up to date. However, because of widespread nature of our information sources, no guarantee is given for accuracy of content throughout this article. Web Rank disclaim all liability in event of inaccuracies found.

5. Auto Pilot www.managebid.com

Probably pick of Internet based programs, Manage Bid’s Auto Pilot software was only one reviewed that provided unlimited keywords. The hitch is that each keyword will cost you 0.25 USD a month to monitor, with a minimum spend of $25 per domain, per month. Bid updates are done every 24 hours and program provides support for eight PPC engines (some obscure). There is also an Economy Mode for penny pinchers, at 0.10 USD per keyword, with a minimum spend of $10 per domain, per month. But economizers must update their bids manually - see Features Chart for details. Score 7/10

6. PPC Professional www.ppcmanagement.com

Now this one has real potential. You have choice of purchasing a lifetime version or a monthly subscription and you also have flexibility of determining how often your bids are checked and updated. Keywords supported range from 50 to 5,000+ with costs staggered from $89 or $12 per month for 50 keywords to $999 or $100 per month for 5000+ keywords (see Features Chart for detailed pricing). With a "Smart Bid" feature to ensure your bids are cost-effective and ability to import keywords straight from Overture, this new product has many features bigger names don’t. You can print reports or email them directly to customers and developers claim to keep your login and account info secure. It also supports unlimited Overture accounts for those of you with multiple clients. Currently software only supports Overture.com, but a new release planned shortly will support other engines and include new features. The 10 day, 10 keyword trial version has a few bugs to be ironed out and interface isn’t as intuitive as others, but definitely one to watch. Score 7/10

7. Position Guardian www.positionguardian.com

Not most feature-packed product, Position Guardian (Premium) is an Internet based bid monitoring and gap analysis tool that automates process of checking your bids on Overture and sends you daily notification of bid gaps. Unlike other products reviewed, Position Guardian does not include automated bid updating, you have to manually change bids yourself by logging in to your Overture account. Sure it’s cheaper than some, with prices ranging from $7.95 to $57.95 per month depending on keyword numbers, but it still seems like a lot to pay for less than half work (see Features Chart for detailed pricing). In their defense, they do provide a free online version that allows you to manually check for bid gaps one keyword at a time - handy if you’re worried about that all important keyword. Score 4/10

8. BidRight www.bidright.net

We have a winner! BidRight was very hard to fault. A downloadable desktop program, no monthly fees, generous keyword limits and a very competitive price for their new release Pro edition (USD $199 for 500 keywords). See Features Chart for more pricing options. Version 2 supports FindWhat, Kanoodle and eSpotting in conjunction with Overture US & UK and allows user to determine bid update frequency from every 60 seconds to every 24 hours. Their interface follows WYSISYG principle and it was easiest of all software to install and start using.

Particularly impressive is "Gap Surfing" tool that finds most cost-effective position from a range of ranks that you predetermine. So if you wanted to remain in top 5 positions, you choose position 1 as your target rank and enable gap surfing with a range of 4. BidRight will find largest price gap in top 5 and slot your bid in there automatically whenever it is scheduled to update, preventing you from overbidding and saving you lots of money in process. Other new features include ability to export reports in CSV format, a drop back rank feature when maximum bid has been reached. Combine all this with ability to customize update frequency for your most important keywords and you have a very powerful tool that becomes a must for managing any PPC campaign. You can download a fully functioning 15 day demo, with only disadvantage a five keyword limit. Score 9/10

Well BidRight was ultimate winner of our Showdown and I was so impressed with product that I immediately signed up to become an affiliate! If you would like to buy BidRight, you may like to use our affiliate link: http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?bidright+NARxJp+index.html. Be sure to mention Coupon Code WR 007 to obtain a 5% discount (we do get a commission if you use our link, so if that bothers you, feel free to use general link above). Remember you can view Features Chart for all software reviewed from longer version of this article located at our site: http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/PPC_Bid_Management_Software_Showdown.htm.

If you are in market for any kind of Bid Management Software, you may want to keep an eye on current talk about implications of such software on server load at Overture. Apparently Overture are considering restricting access to their servers from persons using bid management software because server load is becoming too great. They may block access from certain IP addresses that abuse system or they may restrict access by software. To reduce impact on search engine servers, you should use your bid management software responsibly, restricting bid checking to every few hours or daily rather than every few minutes.