Yahoo rolling out more Inktomi?

percentages going up

[EquityMind]

I posted before that I was seeing Inktomi in my Yahoo SERPS and it appeared to be IP based since it was definately Ink at home and Google at my office computer. This has been the case for over a month now. However when I look at the percentages of traffic given over time, I noticed a huge shift today:

Last Monday:

Google: 43% of traffic
Yahoo: 20% of traffic

Today:

Google: 34.7 %
Yahoo: 29.8 %

This is a huge discrepancy considering that this is a site with several million unique visitors per month.

Is anyone else getting percentage of traffic discrepancies today like this? Is Yahoo rolling out more Inktomi as they slowly phase out Google?

EquityMind

[glengara]

Looking at Y! .com from Ireland, I see Inktomi results, some with rdrw1.Inktomi in the linking Url.

[WebmasterFisherman]

Glengara
Are you seeing pure search inktomi or PFI only?

Also I must have missed it somewhere what relation do m$n have to inktomi - are they looking to replace looksmart with PFI inktomi next year?

[EquityMind]

MSN is dropping LookSmart on January 15th I believe. Since MSN search wont be available until 2005 sometimes from what we hear, Inktomi is 'getting a promotion' according to SearchEngineWatch's Danny Sullivan. The Inktomi results I'm currently seeing at Yahoo search are pure Inktomi results, not just PFI. I'm doing PFI, so I definately see my sites there mixed in with pure Ink.

EquityMind

[edited by: EquityMind at 3:19 pm (utc) on Dec. 19, 2003]

[WebmasterFisherman]

Since MSN search wont be available until 2005

I am ages away in time!
MSN is dropping dead?

[EquityMind]

No, MSN is developing their own search platform, to be rolled out with their new LongHorn operating system, in the meantime, they will continue to use Ink while dropping LookSmart.

[glengara]

WF, those results were "straight" Ink, just mentioned the PFI Urls as proof they were Ink.

[HayMeadows]

I'm seeing an increase in traffic from MSN, Yahoo, and AltaVista (among others).

Not busting our bubble, this is exactly the same experience we have had for all of our customers.

[WebmasterFisherman]

Can't say looming Inktomi invasion makes me happy.
Google has always been my top priority in SEO and I just seem to have put too many eggs in one basket:(
Please Yahoo don't...

[HyperGeek]

WebmasterFisherman,

When you lose your bait, what should you do?

Just hook up another piece.

[WebmasterFisherman]

Or just reel off and start a catering franchise business :)

[seoboy]

our listings are not standard PFI, but rather bulk inclusion via XML through index connect. the URLs that are getting traffic are redirect URLs, not end-destination URLs. no search engine that i know of would spider a 302, grab the content on the final destination page, and then list the original 302 URL in the SERP. the listed URLs -- because they are merely redirects -- do not hold any true content. this means that there's not anything there to spider there. the content only resides in the XML feed.

so again, my point is that these listings are PFI and could only get into yahoo through Ink. obviously, yahoo is doing some testing.

seoboy

[Trawler]

seoboy>

no search engine that i know of would spider a 302, grab the content on the final destination page, and then list the original 302 URL in the SERP. the listed URLs -- because they are merely redirects -- do not hold any true content.

------

Google just this that to me on November 23, 2003

They indexed all 236 domains that I had on a domain park and re-direct service, that were pointing to one of my sites.

The listed URL's were published with along with the with the content of my site page and the meta description of my site.

Talk about duplicate content. I have 237 of them.

I intend to send one nasty letter to google about this.

Talk about a google screwup

[panic]

I intend to send one nasty letter to google about this.

Good luck... I doubt google will even bother reading it, much less do something about it.

[Brad]

I was seeing Ink on Yahoo a week or so ago but it has reverted back to modified Google results.

[jimbeetle]

MSN search wont be available until 2005

MSN says June 2004. See [webmasterworld.com...]

[sysdomatic]

Is there any way to see Inktomi results? Is Hotbot.com pure Inktomi or?

[2_much]

Yes, the "Hotbot" tab on hotbot.com

[nakulgoyal]

Yes EquityMind, I also feel the same for 2 of my MAIN client websites. They receive over 50,000 uniques everyday.

[Bobby]

Is there any way to see Inktomi results? Is Hotbot.com pure Inktomi or?

sysdomatic,

Hotbot is NOT pure Inktomi results, use Pure Search [search.positiontech.com]

[nippi]

I'm also seeing inkhoo results.

[mquarles]

kanetrain,

I have reviewed your posts elsewhere and here, and dude, you're either a Google employee or suffering from a major case of Googlephilia. Try opening your eyes. There are several search engines delivering results in the same relevance range as Google.

In fact, since the latest update, I am finding both AllTheWeb and AltaVista slightly better on most searches, although their lead over Google post-Florida is small and similar to Google's lead pre-Florida.

MQ

[textex]

I'm with kane, INK is junk!

[Chndru]

INK is junk

Bingo.

[mquarles]

Has anyone seen any sign of AV or ATW results on Yahoo?

MQ

[textex]

JUNKTOMI!

[kanetrain]

mquarles -

I'm really not fixated on google ;) I currently think Google results are better. I'm a joe-public user and a site owner (multiple sites in differente arenas).

I really don't have a personal vendetta against Yahoo at all. In fact, I am rooting for Yahoo and for whatever engine they put behind Yahoo Search. I think the diversification is great for the SE world. I also have other reasons that I am rooting for Yahoo (not related to this thread, so I'll refrain).

I just don't think Ink is the engine to drive Yahoo yet. It could be in several months, or it could be in a few days. I have no idea when it will be ready, but right now the results I see are not nearly as relevant as other engines. Again, that's just my opinion.

I should add, I think Alltheweb is a close second and AltaVitsa has great results too. On a few of my terms, it could be argued that ATW is far superior to Google.

Anyway, Yahoo knows that if they release an engine with irrelevant results, average users will find their way to another search engine. I think Yahoo has been able to convert quite a few people to Yahoo Search by piggy backing on Google. If they (Yahoo) starts using Ink, I think many visitors are going to get frustrated. I think your average searcher will switch from Yahoo and start looking for another engine. Most of those will end up back at Google... and the whole idea of "balancing power" and "diversification" goes to pot.

[Lothar]

I second that KaneTrain... Yahoo needs to put up the best results they can in order to make a more level playing field in the search engine arena. I think Inktomi needs some more tweaks before it goes live IMHO.

[steveb]

Inktomi is nowehere near ready to be taken seriously as a search engine. The results are scary bad time and time again. This is largely due to the pfi model and abysmal crawling of the Internet, but even besides that, the junk that Ink throws up is often just pitiful.

Yahoo has made a lot of great moves in the past 18 months, but switicng to Inktomi, the current Inktomi, would be suicide.

[Jane_Doe]

I think Ink results look pretty good for the terms I track. In some areas they are much more relevant than Google. I guess it depends on what areas you are checking.

[tomparis]

I have recently seen my traffic from Yahoo decline. This is after a horrible decline from Google after "FLORIDA".

MSN is still holding on, but their yield is down.

The other Search engines - Altavista, Lycos, Excite, etc...
yield so little traffic that they are small potatoes.

Perhaps Yahoo is changing their algorithm.

Inktomi needs to get better before Yahoo dumps Google;
Ink is poor at obscure terms.

Also, I hear that MSN will soon have their own search engine
running.

Any thoughts?