inktomisearch

[nadsab]

Hi,

Not sure if this is an OK forum to ask this question, someone please tell me if not. It's my understanding that Yahoo and inktomisearch have merged?

I'm getting ready for the next google deep crawl and noticed I was just heavily crawled by inktomisearch, and what I don't understand, I thought inktomisearch was just a search engine submission firm? Are they a search engine too? Why would they crawl my site? Or is it a generic engine for several other engines?

If it is for several other engines, if I get crawled by Inktomi Slurp does that mean my site will appear on all engines that Slurp crawls for? If so, how long after a crawl is the index updated?

[Brad]

Inktomi has been bought by Yahoo. Inktomi is a search provider which spiders the web and then they supply that search feed to portals and search engines.

Inktomi supplies search to MSN and Hotbot to name a few. :)

[mack]

Inktomi is a search engine, although they do not promote them selfes as such, they tend to provide results for other sites, mainly portals. Unlike google who promote themselfes as an SE ink like to lurk in the background. Ink is a pay for inclusion engine so glad to hear they spiderd you, hope you get some nice traffic from them.

[mack]

beat me to it Brad
nice post.

[nadsab]

Hey thanks for the info guys,

So when companies buy the ink results, do they place on their indexes all web pages that ink gives them or are they somehow selective and cherry pick the ink results? It appears that ink grabbed all of my pages.

[Brad]

They can custom sort the results by applying their own algo or they can use something standard supplied by Inktomi.

[nadsab]

So I guess what I'm learning is that although there are supposedly thousands of search engines on the net, that there are merely dozens (or less) of major web crawler companies that do most of the searching for sites? Is this correct?

And they sell to their databases to other companies?

If correct, how many major crawlers are there? Is it just google, ink, scooter and fast-web, and a few others?

And it's a waste of time and $ paying for a search engine submission service (and a rip off)?

If there are just a few, what are the major crawlers of the www? Say the top 5 or ten?

[Mohamed_E]

> If correct, how many major crawlers are there?

I would say that in the USA there are exactly two, Google and Inktomi. Of my search engine referrals about 85% come from Google and partners, and about 10% from MSN (Inktomi). The rest is just noise.

OK, others might want to include their favorite #3, but I will stick with the two who send me traffic.

I do not know who the major players are outside the USA, I believe that FAST, at least, is a contender in much of the rest of the world.

> And it's a waste of time and $ paying for a search engine submission service (and a rip off)?

Definitely a waste of time and money, rip-off is a loaded term that I am reluctant to use.

[nadsab]

Thanks for all this great info!

So then all a web designer really needs to worry about (in USA) is to optimize sites and be aware of ink and google crawls? And that's it?

I thought Ink was a japanese company. Where are they located?

Also since yahoo bought Ink, does that mean that yahoo is no longer going to use google databases and use ink instead?

[Brad]

>>Also since yahoo bought Ink, does that mean that yahoo is no longer going to use google databases and use ink instead?

We do not know what the plans are, but I think they will. Inktomi is an American company.

Google and Inktomi are the two biggest spiders by market reach. Other important spiderers are AltaVista, AlltheWeb/FAST and Teoma/Ask.

To start I would focus on Google and Inktomi then diversify out from there.

[Jon_King]

Is there a portal that only uses Ink results? I am trying to see 'pure' Ink serps for keywords.

[robjones]

Inktomi have a search page at [search.positiontech.com...]

[Traveler]

Portal for INK only-
Go to [hotbot.com...]

INK results can be selected.
and you can click once and see the other engines.
VERY USEFUL!

[Jon_King]

Very useful Traveler. Thanks for the tip.

[oliver_w]

I've heard (from a former Inktomi employee) that it's only a matter of time before Yahoo gives Google the boot and begins serving Inktomi (exclusively).

The question is when.

[sem4u]

It won't be until the end of the year according to Yahoo!

[ogletree]

That will be great for me. I show up real nice on Ink. I show up terrible on Google. I am on the first page of all my keywords on Ink. I have none on the first page for Google. There PR thing is the stupidest way to rank sites.

[jrs_66]

After many months of waiting, I too, have been getting heavily spidered by inktomi. This has been going on for several weeks now- and still no sign of their index being updated (other than the few pages which were indexed in the past- they are refreshed). Slurp spidered about 1500 pages and currently displays about 10. Any ideas as to when, if ever, inktomi will add the rest of my spidered pages?