Here are some ideas for thesis projects I'd like to do:
=============================
1. Search Engine Relevance
=============================
What are the clickthrough rates for different ranks on the various search engines? They each surely know their own rates, but they have no real incentive to share those numbers, so we'll never see a good comparison. Unless someone like me partners with Omniture and does this study, see, to compare companies' rankings with their traffic from search engines, and the Overture search volume, to determine it.
For example:
Company A, Google [cliff diving], ranked number 4.
Overture [cliff diving], queries 3600.
Page ranked at 4, clicks from Google 36.
Google's number 4 spot CTR is 1%.
Do that enough times, and you might come up with some interesting data.
=============================
2. Linking Security Tech to the Internet
=============================
I'd love to study the companies whose 'web-enabled' security cameras have turned out to be a major mistake when Google indexed them all.
=============================
3. Brand Monitoring - Corporate Intelligence
=============================
How about developing a tool to track and monitor brand popularity online? Some company called TNS Media tracks ad spending and stuff, and as I was reading about them, I thought it would be cool to put together a tracking system for the Internet. I could enter a list of brands, and then watch their rankings and frequency over time. That data could be overlaid with product lifecycle data, ad spending information, or PR things that are happening, to see what sort of aggregate effect it is having online.
=============================
4. Content Analysis of Internet Advertising
=============================
Is the stuff being sold online different from that being pitched on TV? Clearly, SPAM tips things that way. What about the products featured on major websites? Which industries have embraced the Internet, and in which is there still a potential first-mover advantage to be exploited? Have any tested the waters and fully turned away?
=============================
5. Integration of Offline and Online Campaigns
=============================
Which companies are successfully integrating real-world marketing with the Internet? Which are doing it inadvertently? (That kind of gets back to the brand monitoring idea.)
=============================
6. Educational Gaming
=============================
What do we know about using games to teach? People remember 9/10ths of what they DO, right? What if we can get them to do it in a game?
=============================
*** 7. Search Engine Personalization ***
=============================
An update to the 1994 study would probably be the easiest thing to do. And it would be fascinating! So much has changed since then. Their study saw only periphery -- personalization of the interface, and accessories, with no meaningful effect on the results themselves. Today, powerful intra-search personalization is available. What is the real state of personal search?