• Microsoft adCenter, Friday, October 10, 2008 4 PM

"There's a lot of similarity between fly fishing and search engine advertising," says Charles Thrasher, noting that "trout rise to different insects as they hatch at different times of the year, even different hours of the day. A fly offered at the wrong time or with the wrong presentation is likely to be ignored."

Similarly, he notes, give him a code at the wrong time in the buying cycle, and he's likely to ignore it (Simplistic, yet, truer words were rarely spoken.)

Thrasher provides other examples of similarities between search and outdoor activities. Noting that search starts with a need, he describes the beginning of his realization of one need: "After walking a trail on Cougar Mountain, my ankles ache and I realize that my Converse tennis shoes, although fashionably retro, are probably not the best footwear for a mountain. I need something better."

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