FAST Inclusion? I'll see you at the funeral ...

Bye, Bye Inktomi Altavista and FAST ...

[internetheaven]

Just got this in my mail box this morning, thought it might interest you guys:

"As of the 1st March 2004 the following programs and services will no longer supported or offered:
- Inktomi Search Submit
- AltaVista Express Submit
- Fast PartnerSite

Any reseller orders received on the 1st of March will NOT be able to be processed.

Information on the new program, to replace Inktomi, AltaVista and Fast, will be provided on the programs launch and release date."

Bummer huh? Here's hoping they keep all of your listings in the FAST index for the full year before making you pay for the new program.

[kanetrain]

Hmmmm... there's the writing on the wall. Looks like Yahoo may be combining ATW, ALtavista, and Ink into one engine and charging for PFI in that engine.
Interesting.... and very possible.

[heini]

I think all this will get pretty clear over the next few days - Yahoo is set to make some announcements in Orlando.

[Rumbas]

Tim just confirmed this in Supporters [webmasterworld.com] and in person at Pubcon.

ATW and AV will merger into the new Yahoo soon (not Inktomi) and therefore show Yahoo serps. The AV and ATW domains will therefore still be online as they in fact still are very well known brands (at least AV is being used quite a bit I'm being told).

Bye bye good old search engine technologies. It was fun and you'll be missed as part of the mix.

[sem4u]

So just to confirm - Altavista's and Alltheweb's search technologies will be no more as we know them today?

They will both be merged into the new Yahoo! index and AV, ATW and Yahoo! will use the same index?

[trillianjedi]

sem4u - that's about the size of it, yes.

Shame - I really liked ATW for a lot of searches.

Seems now the dominating pair will be Yahoo and Google. Interesting to see how much market share MSN can obtain.

TJ

[sem4u]

I used to like using AV too. I still use AV if I can't find what I am looking for with Google.

I wonder what will power Lycos from now on.

[Compworld]

Gates's MSN will eventually win out on top in the long run. Whe? Well MSN has an exclusive broswer partnership with AOL. Also, they control the desktop market. Believe that when the next update to XP & 2000, somewhere in that update will be the new and improved MSN Search. Also, when longhorn comes out, it will have search built in to the desktop.

So, the only question is.... Which company will join the MSFT family of web sites? Google or Yahoo? I would tend to guess that Google is in worse condition than Yahoo, so that might very well be a good takeover target for CHMN Gates. If they were in better shape, the IPO would have had a set date by now. Only time will tell...

CompWorld