stcrim - 2:04 am on Sep 20, 2000 (gmt 0)

For some techno reason, Liane isn't able to post here - a problem I can assure you we will resolve. Liane sent this reply to my this evening...

Hi,

I was e:mailed and told that somebody had copied my letter from another forum and asked me to take part in this discussion. I am simply a business owner and in no way do I qualify as a webmaster as my knowledge of "everything internet" is very limited.

Having said that, over the past 5 months, I have been forced to learn more about search engines than I ever wanted to know. In fact, I am on a first name basis with at least 3 editors from various directories!

I have read all messages in this string and found them very interesting. Quite frankly, I was surprised that all this seems to come as real news to all of you.

To Mike, I just want to say that I have had a site in the Inktomi data base for more than 2 years without any problems at all. (So where do I collect my share of the ticket sales?)

To Grnidone ... I can only reiterate that the above statements are all true. (My bible is under my right hand and my left hand is over my heart). I'm afraid I have no way to prove what was said during my discussion with Tim Gilbert of Inktomi as I unfortunately forgot to raise the cone of silence in order to flip on the tape machine. (Drat, I do that all the time!)

Of course what I have stated would, in a court of law, be considered hearsay as I have no proof. I can however, forward you several e:mails back and forth between Canada.com and myself which references this discussion and content of same. In addition, someone else made this comment on the other site after reading my post:

This confirms my feedback from two Inktomi portals which also stated '....there is a problem
with the submit URL feature...until is it is sorted results will be unpredictable...'. One of these
was canada.com. This, however, is the first post which explains the problem in depth and I, for
one, will heed the advice.

I certainly have no reason to fabricate any part of my post and I doubt that Mr. Gilbert (of Inktomi) had any reason to tell me anything which wasn't true. What would be the point?

Anyway, my post was merely an effort to share my experiences with others who may be suffering from the same syndrome as I. (My Mom always said sharing was a good thing!) Whomever chooses to believe what I have reported "is all drivel" ... is certainly free to do so. It only took me 4 months of letter writing and pestering to finally get the answer from Mr. Gilbert. It seemed to make sense to me. Perhaps somebody has a better answer they could share which would explain the problems with Inktomi submissions? I'm sure it will all come out in the wash eventually anyway.

I'm certainly open to anything which will help rescue my foundering site!

Kind regards,
Liane
(No axes to grind or crosses to bare)

P.S. I did an in depth survey of my site and its search results using specific keyword strings on 18 major search engines. The survey clearly points out the trouble on Inktomi related sites. If anyone would like a copy just e:mail me. I'd be happy to supply same.