PPC & PPA ADVERTISING FEEDS…
CBProsense, CBPlugin, CBmall Search Engine: Competitive Comparison

CBprosense, CBPlugin, and the CBmall search engine compete in the same ad content delivery niche, though they differ widely in implementation.

CBprosense and CBPlugin are more expensive than the full CBmall package, which includes not only the search engine component but the CBmall itself. However, as ad-serving portals, both CBprosense and CBPlugin offer more flexibility in terms of configuration and returning results pages. None of the SERPs methods are perfect. CBPlugin does return search results onpage, which is nice, as long as you don't mind search results displayed in the limited IFRAME. CBprosense search results are returned either on a new page, or in a new window — neither of which is completely customizable. You can add a header graphic, but no other custom templating is possible at this writing. CBmall requires visitors to jump to the CBmall storefront to view search results, since, the search engine component of CBmall is really intended to be a tool to lead visitors to the mall itself.

The CBprosense search box feature, however, is less sophisticated than CBPlugin or CBmall in that the only way to pre-seed a search is to embed a keyword inside the search box, whereas both CBPlugin and CBmall allow you to display clickable keywords beside the search box. These keywords can be used to guide searchers to either broad product categories or specialized niches, which is a nice feature for niche websites.

Limitations aside (see full CBPlugin review), CBPlugin is a standalone product, and, as such, is more versatile than the CBmall search engine, though not as versatile as CBprosense. If you can live with the CBmall plug-in search engine limitations and happen to want the whole CBmall storefront, CBmall is more bang for the buck than CBprosense or CBPlugin. Both the visitor and administrator interfaces of CBprosense are superior to CBPlugin and CBmall.

If you evaluate these three plugins purely as content-sensitive ad delivery systems, the best solution is CBprosense, by a country mile. Since neither CBmall nor CBPlugin has a spidering mechanism, they lack the primary ingredient of pure contextual advertising: displaying keyword-sensitive ads which arise organically from page content. CBmall search engine and CBPlugin do offer some control over ad content relevance since both allow you to display ad content that meets specified keywords.

CBProsense is more expensive. But its customizable nature means you can make it yours. And you can count on it to behave. That's worth a lot. The same can be said of the CBmall search engine, but not of the sometimes erratic CBPlugin. It should be pointed out that owning one of these products does not necessarily exclude owning the others. The three products could, in fact, co-exist quite nicely on a website which might, for that matter, also include ad content delivery systems from the major search engines, such as Google AdSense or Yahoo YPN.

Learn more about CBProsense…
Learn more about CBmall…
Learn more about CBPlugin…