Abnormal increase in referrals from Inktomi

[defanjos]

Has anyone noticed a huge spike in inktomi traffic right after xmas?
Traffic for me has increased to levels much higher than October and November.

Did a lot of the new computers sold for xmas come with MSN as the default internet connection?

[Brett_Tabke]

That is exactly what a few of us were talking about in email. I think that is the main thing it can be - either that, or a mild tweaking of the algo that serves msn.

[defanjos]

or a mild tweaking of the algo that serves msn.

If that is the case, they did it to bring back more money into the pay for inclusion program, I bet since they did that major tweak in August, they've lost a lot of money -- especially on renewals.

[jimbeetle]

It's kind of weird. Even though we lost a lot of MSN traffic to one of our main sections when they dropped Direct Hit overall MSN traffic has been going through the roof -- more than a 50% increase in actual numbers this month over October.

Now to get the money making traffic back.

[mayor]

This is only a theory, but it looks to me like Ink does a batch update on new sites, then spends the next few months culling out the dredgings. As the dredgings are discarded, the traffic to remaining sites increases. But they can only hold off so long before they have to do another batch update.

This theory would explain why Ink traffic to individual sites climbed from February 2002 through July 2002, then crashed in August with their big update, and has been followed by various levels of growth again since then. Slurp has been active at new sites recently (at least new ones that are three or four months old) so I think we are on the eve of another batch update, which could be followed by another big drop in traffic as a new cycle begins in the boom/bust batch process.

My theory also suggests a six month cycle, with the booms occuring at peak commercial traffic times (new sites, weary of waiting for a free listing, are more willing to buy their way in during a feeding frenzy, like late spring, then again for the Christmas holidays) and the busts occuring when the commercial traffic ebbs (August and January).

[rcjordan]

Nice theory, mayor. Makes me go Hmmmmmmm! Need to explore this....

[mack]

Could be related to the recent press that ink woudl have received as a result of the yahoo deal. Perhaps their actual searches have peaked as people "take a look" as it where.

[jimbeetle]

Ooooh! I love a theory that is somewhat observable: You might never be able to prove it but you know it in your bones. Have to echo RC "Need to explore this..."