Is Hot Bot a dead dodo?

Should we read it the last rites?

[namniboose]

Isn't Hot Bot powered primarily by Inktomi?

I am wondering why my site is not listed on Hot Bot at all when I have 5 pages listed on Inktomi.

I did a search on my domain name and nothing came up.

Any ideas?

[ggrot]

I just put a site in inktomi via paid submit today. Shows up fine in hotbot. Thats very odd.

[Marcia]

I've got some pages doing OK with MSN and AOL, and can't get to first base with HotBot. But even when there are some decent listings with Hotbot, the traffic is nil anyway.

Added:
Those pages are not IN Hotbot altogether; some free pages are, but not the paid ones.

(edited by: Marcia at 8:24 am (gmt) on Nov. 28, 2001)

[seoboy]

for those who arent familiar, ink results on hotbot are 3rd tier - directhit first, then odp, then ink results. which is why, as marcia says, traffic is nil from ink results. they generally dont start to the 2nd or 3rd page of results.

the only traffic we ever get from hotbot is via directhit listings.

re: sites not coming up in searches, i've always found hotbot site searches to be buggy - on and off. not sure why.

[Marcia]

buggy!! seoboy, you should have seen what was coming up at AOL this afternoon..LOL. However, I'm not happy about those pages not even being in there at all - just on principal.

[namniboose]

Hi SEO boy, the thing is we are #3 on ODP for our main keyword phrase (about #30 on Direct Hit, plus on Inktomi) but we are not on HotBot AT ALL. Isn't that odd?

Sounds to me like H.B.'s database hasn't been updated for a long time.

[Robert Charlton]

Either HotBot's database is old (it appears to be less up-to-date than other Inktomi-powered engines), OR... it is purchasing only a small chunk of Inktomi's database (Inktomi sells different sizes to different customers).

[thesecretchimp]

Hi all,
Who own's Hotbot? Who provides the results to the owner? Look for HotBot to go the same way early next year.... Should bring life back into the old girl.

[jeremy goodrich]

that's a bit confusing of a post, thesecretchimp. btw, welcome to webmasterworld.

I believe the answers to those questions are already in the thread, unless you are referring to the fact that Terra Lycos owns hotbot.com.

[seoboy]

namniboose -

being #3 in ODP doesnt guarantee you visibility in hotbot. practically every site that uses ODP data also uses their own ranking criteria for the data therein.

translation: hotbot results from ODP are different from ODP.

[namniboose]

Yes, but our site is NOT IN HOT BOT AT ALL! I did a search on the domain name and nothing came up.

[seth_wilde]

"that's a bit confusing of a post"

He seems to be implying that hotbot will be displaying results from alltheweb.com early next year...

thesecretchimp is this speculation or have you heard this from reliable sources?

[jeremy goodrich]

;)

Was hoping the poster would nudge that one further, but yes, Seth, that's what I thought.

However, we're here for facts, not rumors based on 'secret chimps'.

Do you have any sources to back it up?

[tigger]

I've always found it quite easy to get into hotbot via the paid ink pages and more often than not the rankings I get with hotbot are quite good, far better than MSN (due to Looksmart paid listings) or AOL but the traffic from MSN outstrips hotbot by 100%.

In time I can see hotbot slipping off the scene as I feel people are just not using it.

[pete]

Im almost embarassed to say it, but a couple of years ago, hotbot used to be my favourate S.E and a great traffic provider!

Now what do we have:
1) Products and Services from Goto's PPC service with an option to click through to more paid listings.
2) Search partners pointing people to irrelevant content. Sites that in the majority of cases, have nothing to do with what you searched for.
3) Then come the direct hit results (if the default of 10 is set).
4)O.D.P listings are shown next and often, the ones which are prominently listed have been pulled from obscure cats.
5) Finally, you get Ink listings.

They have played a bit with the order listed above in the past six months to a year.

Put your unsophisticated hat on and place yourself as a newbie trying to find a product or service. Its akin to a cluttered shopping mall desperately trying to sell distressed space and making alot of meaningless noise!

Definition of the modern search portal?

[thesecretchimp]

Hello again all. I thought my last comment would raise some more questions. As to my source for the information..... a friend at FAST.

[littleman]

Well Mr Chimp, could you do anything to add some credibility to your statement?

[mr_dredd2]

at least 30 sites of mine have, in the last month, seen drastic losses in hotbot.com.
Most are in dmoz, all are in positiontech paid inktomi.

The results they did have, have drastically been cropped.

something has happened in hotbots algorythm.

[namniboose]

Brett tells me that Hot Bot is rumoured to ban a site that has been auto-submitted to directly.

How ridiculous!

I can only conclude that this is why my site isn't on H.B. despite being on Direct Hit, the Open Directory and (paid) Inktomi.

Anyone else have experience of this? Anyone know if one can get the ban lifted?

I know Hot Bot is increasingly insignificant but I would still like to squeeze a few hits out of it!

[bobriggs]

back on topic to secretchimp's statemtent.

What good would it do? (in USA) How much traffic does HB get? I have good rankings on HB but get 0 hits, unless I'm confusing them with lycos hits - which are also very small.

If HB were giving the FAST results - (which BTW I also like), it still needs visitors. I think the answer to the discussion is yes, it's a dead dodo. It could come back from the grave, but I think it would take a lot of bucks and PR.

[consul]

Hi!

I totally disagree with the notion that Hotbot is "dead." Our site is listed now.

You simply have to wait. I think it gets updated for a period of up to 60 days. If it does not show up, why not resubmit it?

We are using an automatic submitter and a free one at that. But, we also (at least once a month) submit manually just in case the autosubmitter fails.

Hotbot is I think owned by Lycos (correct me if I am wrong). Try checking your site at Lycos.

Bye for now.

Sincerely,

Allan
(Please look at my user profile for more information.)

[Cavetoad]

I've seen my HB referrals drop way off in the last month or so. It was never the cream of my referral crop but it was steady across many of my sites. But lately, and I'm actually really glad to see this thread, it's just fallen off the chart and almost overnight. I'd have to say that it looks like HotBot's a HasBeen now. Glad to see I'm not the only one sensing trouble.

[jeremy goodrich]

Well, it appears Chimps are good for starting unfounded rumors, but no more than that.

And Hotobot, RIP. At one point (three years ago) I thought they were decent, but the tweaking of the parameters to get a good search never seemed like a good idea to me.