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I should have mentioned that the average user when mentioning a SE. We here know that Y was a directory, but the average person didn't!
Michael Moritz might know! [google.com]
Having a background in the stock market I will go so far as to say this is a brave and bold move for Yahoo, there is more to this then appears.
Lets admit it here folks, Yahoo is a serious company with a serious name.
Yahoo is not in the business to be a share buddy, Yahoo is a dominator, this move tells me we should expect a larger shake-up quite soon. I feel this is the start of a large takeover battle for search property. I also think we may see another bold move sooner than later now with the Yahoo news.
Yahoo has the attitude to develop original content that they manage, this move makes perfect sense. Yahoo needs to be a one shop power-house, we all know from how desperate clients can be that large and small businesses need new customers. The reasoning for this takeover is more clear than it may seem, Yahoo is ready to start playing hard ball with the successfulness of Google.com.
Someone had mentioned DMOZ (Open Directory Project)... DMOZ has serious potential and it shocks me no-one is doing anything about it, or are they? I think there is a plan here, but DMOZ needs to get it's head in the right place and keep adding new content and not being overburdened. I feel DMOZ will have a serious change soon.
Now when thinking about MSN Search, we know there is some money here as well, looks like 2003 could be search shake-up year for us, I think MSN has something down it's shorts as well to tweak the market.
We all need to go about our usual business until we see exactly how these changes will effect us as SEO's
I suspect this merger (YHOO - INK) was pushed harder after the recent Froogle.com news. (Froogle being released) Yahoo is surly opening the doors for a similar product. Froogle.com is new but I strongly feel we will be talking about Froogle a LOT soon.
Things to look for
DMOZ - Expect DMOZ to have it's day
Watch - Watch for a new Froogle.com type of product from a competitor
Watch MSN - Bill Gates is not broke
IXQuick.com - New addition making waves, keep an eye on this one
ZEAL - A bit to Quiet
AOL Search - A lot of power yet nothing, I suspect a move from them as well, way to quiet
As we all know the SE market has been quiet I think it is broken wide open at this point, keep your panties in line folks!
All Best!
Someone had mentioned DMOZ (Open Directory Project)... DMOZ has serious potential and it shocks me no-one is doing anything about it, or are they? I think there is a plan here, but DMOZ needs to get it's head in the right place and keep adding new content and not being overburdened. I feel DMOZ will have a serious change soon.
DMOZ's basic problem is a lack of scalability. The pool of people who will work for free simply isn't large enough to keep up with the Web's growth. This lack of scalability is even worse in spam-prone commercial categories, because the work becomes less pleasant as the number of spam submissions increases--and the sense of making a contribution to the Web begins to pale after vetting the 1,000th affiliate site that's already been submitted under 20 different names.
I suppose that a corporate owner could try to do a "reverse Zeal" by keeping the main DMOZ directory as an open-source volunteer project and hiring paid editors for the commercial categories, where submission fees could be charged to reduce spam submissions and maintain an adequate editorial workforce. Would the core DMOZ volunteers stand for that? Or is it possible that they'd split off and create a true open-source directory a la Newhoo (the pre-Netscape name for the Open Directory Project) which was formed just 4-1/2 years ago in mid-1998?
The other thing is I don't think Yahoo would sign a deal with Google and then just dump them. I doubt that a large company like Yahoo doesn't plan months in advance. They could very well have been planning this for a while.
Personaly I can't wait for to get mixed up, this kind of thing makes oppertunities.
*>> Inktomi will be given a preference over ggl results in the commercial search category. Either this or it will be a mixture of both results. Inktomi will only crawl those pages that are in the Yahoo! directory, giving yahoo the edge in adding more sites to its directory.
*>> Yahoo might come out with CPC listings which will be all google. Overture might be out now. They might have to appease Google with only google cpc listings.
*>> Non commercial searches, - these will be Ink in dominance again, however, considering that they do have much depth here, it will be google that will get all the prominence.
Remember that Yahoo's contract with GGL was non exclusive. So Google would have had an idea of what was afoot.
Google imo will counter this with froogle. which as we all know will one day even include paid services and not products alone.
That my friend will be the day when yahoo will be the only hope for the mom and pop affiliate sites.
>Bills nightmares are filled with visions of Linux
Inktomi switched to Linux based servers, you all know about Google's 10,000 Linux server system.
Wisenut is the only MS bread choice for MSN.
Looks bad for Y! though, they couldn't afford the best so they buy a fixer-upper with a rotting foundation.
This move from Yahoo could also be a negotiation ploy before they make a bid on Google.
Definitely this news is exciting and been a while since we had some major announcement hit the wire like this.
Wow, can't wait to see all those Inktomi "spam threads" popping up in the INK forum. Their database is chock full of spam. Looks as though Googleguy will get a wee break from the same ole, same ole for a while!
I can hear it now ... "Jeeze, what have INK been doing?" Just look at their SERPS. I've never seen so much spam!" "Don't they have any filters in place for this stuff?"
Put your feet up and get comfortable Googleguy. Someone else is about to take the hot seat for a change!"
Guess we'll all start paying more attention to Ink, huh? :)
:)
Yahoo finally got to where they have dependable, understandable results.
Wonder what the average age of the people who made that decision is?
-s-
Anyway have great Christmas everybody.
Don't know if that link was changed, or is just plain gone.
Yahoo is a directory that accepts human insepcted sites!
Inktomi is a search engine that (in the main) spiders 'real' sites - that have also been viewed by humans to increase their 'validity' if there is a complaint!
Google is a spidering engine that doesn't have a clue! Repeat the term you want 500 times in hidden text and join a link farm - yep - you are #1 - despite mass reporting!
I prefer INK/Yahoo - thank you!
An aside - Google has spoken about people like me - we are not the enemies! But people calling themselves SEOs maybe!
I predict a webmaster honeymoon with Yahtomi and it will happen fast. They will have to go out on the web and crawl like hell...and open submissions to get a database. The controls will be programmed and predictable. The growth of Yahtomi will be massive, with new people and programming...money will flow. They will recover their investment within a year and turn it into a huge cash center...eating Googles lunch. They will likely continue their pay to be crawled program at a low price. They can dominate the search market within one year!
I have the sites, I have the money, I've paid the money - now (just maybe) I'm not going to be guzummped by someone with a load of cross-linking sites and a pile of hidden text who can knock up 15 sites per day!
Now, I can do that too - but at least I pay for them! Oh, a Happy Christmas - at last :)
My first reaction to the news was that Ink just got more valuable and that the PFI rates will probably go up. So I just added quite a few new urls with PositionTech.
Looks like an interesting year ahead!
So I suspect that if Y puts the Ink results above the Google results it will result in a decline in search quality.
People doing any serious searching will abandon Y for good. Don't believe me just look average at the amount of time spent with MSN search as compared to Google's average time. Google wins hands down.
Whoever made this decision at Y will be the proud owner of a golden parachute in one or two years.
Before the Google takeover of Yahoo in October it had huge searcher loyalty. It will continue!
No-one has yet shown me where INK results are less relevant than Googles'.
Look for widgets on Google, you get widgets - same on INK - and it was the same before on Yahoo.
This move was for trashing Ink or for getting a better mileage out of Google!.
Watch and see what happens:)
Millions of search engine users have been spoiled to death by Google. Accurate results, delivered instantly, minty fresh. Would I care to trade in my nearly new car for a 1980 Chevy? I don't think so.
I will be watching to see how Yahoo changes Ink. This could be interesting, fun, or pathetic. Or interesting and fun and pathetic. LOL :)
I bet within 60 days Yahoo will be pure ink (maybe even 30, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was Jan 1).
Why would they do that right after paying Google a pile of money? It's not as if Y! woke up yesterday and decided to go shopping - deals like this take a lot of time. Yahoo knew at the time it inked (pardon the pun) the Google deal that it wanted to buy Inktomi.
If Y! does turn around and start exclusively using Inktomi results, then it would be an example of fiscal irresponsibility on their part IMHO. I know that the shareholders sure as heck wouldn't like it.
My take - I am happy (so far)
Inktomi is easy to optimise for, and I like the idea of more baskets for our eggs.
[added]
What about the 'Yahoo as a metacrawler' argument?
