Adult Content and Inktomi, MSN

[Patrick Taylor]

My question relates to an adult site. The site is a new one and was submitted via PFI to Inktomi (3 pages), Fast (1 page), and Ask (1 page). Almost immediately, the site began to receive hits from MSN Search - up to 18,000 page hits after three weeks - on various keyword combinations that seemed to escape some kind of adult filter. It would mostly rank in the first 20 in MSN, on very competitive adult keywords and key phrases that correctly reflected the actual content, though minor modifications to those searched-for keywords would trigger nightsurf.

The site has now dropped out of MSN and HOTBOT SERPS (though still ranks highly with ATW). It can be found by its URLs in MSN but no longer anywhere in SERPS.

Inktomi does not seem to have any policy on adult content, though I understand that MSN does. Does this look like a simple case of a filter catching up with the site, which was in the process of development and addition of content and maybe triggered something off? And if so, whose filter - Inktomi's or MSN's? Does Inktomi filter out PFI adult content for the SERPS it provides to the likes of MSN and HOTBOT? (the site owner certainly wasn't under the impression that it did when they paid for inclusion)

Any views would be appreciated.

[panic]

It all really depends on exactly what type of adult content you're talking about (and how graphic it is).

-panic

[Patrick Taylor]

It's undoubtedly adult content. I was curious why it would suddenly drop right down to 200 plus (not gone altogether) in MSN Search SERPS and whether this is an MSN filter kicking in or an Inktomi one. I can well understand how MSN would need to exclude it, but given that (as I understand it) Inktomi will be delivering Yahoo's search results soon, where exactly this site would stand at that point in time. If Inktomi is filtering results for MSN, will it remove that filter mechanism when it feeds Yahoo? As you can see, I'm not too well up on this.

Regards,

Patrick

[panic]

The question was what kind of adult content it was. Adult pay sites usually get kicked from the index, while some of the others that carry adult novelties stay.

Did your ranks just fall from top placement, or are they dead last? If so, then you got hit with an ol' fasioned Inktomi editorial action.

-p

[Patrick Taylor]

It's not a pay site, but it has adult graphic content and written content. It isn't my site, by the way, but I'm in touch with the owner. I wouldn't have thought it belonged in MSN but it hasn't been totally zapped - on certain keywords it appears well into the top 50, other times in the top 200, but much lower than during the first couple of weeks after it was submitted via PFI to Inktomi.

What I'm really trying to understand is the mechanisms, Inktomi's and MSN's. Why would Inktomi filter out the site? Would they do this on behalf of MSN? And when Inktomi starts to provide results to Yahoo, will they revise their filtering mechanism, manual or otherwise?

Regards,

Patrick