Inktomi and MSN

[rcjordan]

grnidone told us to be on the lookout for this. It's a press release, not a newswire.
Inktomi Announces Agreement with MSN to Extend Search Services Worldwide [biz.yahoo.com]

[Brett_Tabke]

Interesing in that it not only extends the current contract, but expands on it as well. Ink will be used throughout MSN's Asian properties as well.

[tigger]

Hopefully this will kill all the rumours of a MSN / ink split

[Brett_Tabke]

I can't help but think that this is a Microsoft shot at Google. There is little doubt that Google was at the table where MS properly milked Google for as much info on their system (old trick) as possible with the full intention of keeping Ink. It's a dance they all have to do from time-to-time.

[nell]

I agree with the "milking". I had a boss that from time to time advertised top positions offering premium wages just to "milk" applicants from competing companies. You wouldn't believe what inside info he obtained from individuals wanting these jobs. Of course, there was never anyone hired. He let us all know what he was doing so we wouldn't do it to him if we went job hunting. It worked well for him.

[lawman]

>There had been much speculation about the future of Inktomi on the MSN network. That ended today when MSN and INK resigned their current contract.

Leaving that hyphen out of the word "resigned" made my heart skip a beat. But when I followed rcjordan's link, the palpitations subsided. MSN is my top referring domain (even beats Yahoo) and I have several top ten, INK supplied listings.

Lawman

[grnidone]

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall during the meetings.

The fact I find particularly interesting is that Inktomi for so long sounded (and acted) like they were going to get rid of supplying search engine listings to search sites and go strictly to providing software for intranets and databases.

I am sure something *very* interesting went on in the meeting rooms.

-G

[lawman]

Was poking around MSN about 5 a.m edt. The results that popped were the same results that had been popping up under "Beta MSN" except that the word "Beta" was nowhere to be found. These results completely omit my Position Tech/INK pages, many of which had been in the top ten.

Makes you wonder if "re-signed" really should have been "resigned".

Lawman

[tigger]

Panic or what!!

MSN must being doing a lot of testing and switching results around, yesterday I did a search for some of my keywords and one search result only came back with 5 results showing!

Just checked now and back up the normal results so I think only the next few weeks things may get a little odd, but so long as the ink pages stay around I'm a happy chappy :)

[PageCount]

I apologize in advance for repeatedly beating the same old drum (apposite for a child of Africa), but it seems Microsoft and Inktomi are merely mindful of the old adage that it is often best to keep your enemies as close to you as possible.

In the light of the Smart Tags furor and Microsoft and AOL's inability to agree to agree or disagree, Associated Press's States Discuss New Microsoft Suit [dailynews.yahoo.com] makes for interesting reading (as does Procomp's linked site [procompetition.org]).

It's more than interesting to note that many of the potential litigants include Inktomi partners listed under the "About Inktomi" section of the MSN / Inktomi press release [biz.yahoo.com]. These include Sun Microsystems and Netscape (an AOL subsidiary).

"The fact I find particularly interesting is that Inktomi for so long sounded (and acted) like they were going to get rid of supplying search engine listings to search sites and go strictly to providing software for intranets and databases."

- grnidone -

"Inktomi's business is divided into Network Products, comprised of industry leading solutions for network caching, content distribution, and media broadcasting; Search Solutions, which include general Web search and related services and enterprise search; and Wireless technologies."

grnidone, Inktomi does have considerable reach into the global enterprise solutions market and this is precisely why Microsoft needs them (among many) to flesh out .Net. This deal will, as Brett points out, give Microsoft much-needed information (or ammunition) to use against Google whenever they want or need to and it will strengthen their ties with Ink.

As discussed in the IE6 XP Smart Tags [webmasterworld.com] and How Smart Tags Currently Work [webmasterworld.com] threads, Smart Tags are a potential threat to copyright carried by XP and, by extension, the .Net strategy.

This strategy, I believe, is at the heart of the matter.

What bemuses me is that Microsoft appears to be the only company capable of driving through a vision of the Net and Web we all shared several years ago. What the big boys are fighting about is how much of the revenue and the future each can garner for himself. It’s a story as old as the ages and we appear to be allowing these idiots in suits to get away with it – at great cost to ourselves and the medium.

That whoever comes out on top will hold "subscribers" to whatever ransom yields a revenue and user numbers they deem adequate is neither here nor there. Would Sun or other .Net detractors be yelling "monopoly" if they held the financial high ground? I very much doubt it and, to this observer from the foot of the African continent, their opprobrium appears to be little more than hypocrisy. Their duplicity is more than adequately catered for by a system that clothes the logical conclusion to rampant capitalism, i.e. a skewed form of socialism, in doublespeak, a malleable judiciary, and self-righteous media manipulation.

This is merely my observation and is open to correction by anybody. However, I do not believe it will count for much if Microsoft is broken up and is unable to use its fallback strategies to good effect. .Net or a variation of it will be with us in the near future.

The MSN / Ink relationship is, like the Office XP logo, merely another piece of the jig-saw puzzle.

[lawman]

Hello Tigger. I just checked MSN at about 11:25 a.m. edt and the "Beta" results were still up. Fortunately, my Looksmart stuff is placed well, but I don't think much of the description LS came up with.

I saw Sprinks stuff for another lawyer. Maybe I need to do the About/Sprinks thing.

Lawman

[lawman]

I usually check MSN keyword search results every day. Today, for the first time since the "new and improved" search results, some of my Ink/Position Tech optimized pages are starting to creep back into the top 10. Here's hoping the trend continues.

Lawman