Inktomi and Looksmart

Is there a partnership?

[kris]

I recently added a Looksmart listing and noticed that my page in Inktomi has the Looksmart tracking string on the URL. After contacting Looksmart I was told that Inktomi was a Looksmart partner and I am going to pay the .15 per click for that Inktomi listing in addition to the Looksmart Listing.

This is the first I have heard of this. I know that Inktomi uses LS titles and descriptions but didn't think the relationship went farther than this.

Does this mean that any URLs that are currently free in Inktomi are now going to cost me .15 if I add those urls to LookSmart? Has anyone else heard of this?

[jeremy goodrich]

Inktomi & LookSmart have had their partnership in place for a while (years perhaps?) so if you do subscribe to the LS program, and end up paying the .15 cents a click, afaik, those will also get syndicated through LookSmart's distribution, which includes MSN, Inktomi, etc.

I don't believe there is any way to 'opt out' either...

[kris]

I was enjoying great free traffic from Inktomi and ranking very well for these terms before submiting these urls to LS. Now these same pages are going to cost me .15 per click?

If I had known this going in I would have thought twice about the submission.

[jeremy goodrich]

I'm not 100% positive that they will *all* start to cost .15 per click, but I am sure that you could get clarification from LS about how this works.

Though I would agree, if they *are* going to start charging you for what you were getting for free, it's not very nice to let you know after the fact. They ought to make it *crystal clear* on the sign up how their 'service' works.

[roscoepico]

As far as the listings go they are different. ON MSN for instance, the first sites that are listed are the sites in Look$mart(WEB DIRECTORY SITES). Free listings appear after all paid listings and are noted as "WEB PAGES". I don't think your free listings should be affected as we have both paid(Looksmart) and free listings, only difference is the paid Looksmart listings show up first.

[kris]

I don't think your free listings should be affected as we have both paid(Looksmart) and free listings, only difference is the paid Looksmart listings show up first

That is what I am saying. Our "Free" listing on MSN (under the web pages results) now has the LS tracking code. When I contacted Looksmart they told me that because Inktomi is a partner, I was going to pay .15 per click for that Inktomi listing. It was a free Inktomi page before I paid to include that url to LookSmart.

The LookSmart "deal" isn't that sweet if your free Inktomi listings are going to be replaced by paid LookSmart ones.

[martinibuster]

Inktomi listings are trumped by LS listings. One thing you can do is change the LS keywords you are aiming for to something different than what you were coming up for in Inktomi. This includes playing with your LS title and description.

Gather all your data for the keywords related to your Ink traffic and optimize the LS listing for something else.

LS can be good for trumping Over and Ink results, but you have to have a targetting strategy before you start mixing and matching all your programs.

This is nothing new. If you review the Paid Inclusion and Directories forums you'll see me in a lot of the LS posts advising to be careful when mixing and matching.

Same goes for business.com.

[roscoepico]

This is interesting. I thought there was some sort of FTC regulation where engines needed to specify to searchers what were sponsored links. Are L$ links not considered sponsored? Someones paying for them?

related:

Spot Check By AP Reveals Most Engines Slow to Respond To FTC Requests [webmasterworld.com]

[jeremy goodrich]

Ya, there are some FTC guidelines, but they aren't really "enforced" yet as far as I know.

The labeling guidelines they put out give ample "wiggle room" for the engine to do a lot of different things, including simply having a link describing where the results come from.

Hardly something a typical consumer would wade through to find out how the engine works, imho.

And this has happened often enough with LS that you'd think they would make it a bit more *clear* on their site how their system operates.

[quotations]

>And this has happened often enough with LS that you'd think they would make it a bit more *clear* on their site how their system operates.

Perhaps that will become part of the <next> class action lawsuit against LS?

Since the last one is moving toward settlement, perhaps it is time to start getting the next one together?

[roscoepico]

I'm not sure if organizing a class action is something to try and put together here.

[Fruit and Veg]

Is this for real?

It can't be. I've just been checking out all the various paid inclusions and was thinking of doing both Inktomi and Looksmart. So if the above is true then not only does a free Inktomi listing get hijacked by Looksmart and charged, but a paid for Inktomi submission would also get hijacked by Looksmart - in effect you get charged twice for the same listing!?

This sounds absolutely ludicrous - but then again, this is Looksmart we're talking about.

[kris]

Hi Fruit_and_Veg
This is correct. I am now paying per click for my Inktomi listings because I submitted that URL to Looksmart. I thought it was a mistake when I saw my LS tracking url on an Inktomi page.

There is a way to get around this. If you are enjoying a nice Inkotmi rank and would like to get listed on Looksmart (and avoid the page getting hijacked by LS) create an identical page in another folder, place a robots.txt on it and submit that page to LS. This way your Ink page will stay free of PPC.

I am not sure if PFI urls are subject to the same fate as free Inktomi URLS. That would be a question for a PFI provider

Kris