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Welcome to WmW, newriver.
Portals used to be driven by search. I think that has changed and is continuing to change. They are leaving the pure competent seacrh business to specialist sites like google etc. They think, maybe, that there is better ways to make money than the search, which was the first thing that made them famous.
<Just thinking out loud>
The question was asked in another forum, and the moderator there said it was a definate possibility with a wink. She is usually not wrong about Yahoo (don't know if she works there or not?).
The reason I am so interested in because my inktomi listings are up for renewal this week from last year, and until I heard this i was not going to renew them. If they switched places with google on Yahoo then I would probably rethink this.
I have never had problems with inktomi results, I think they are pretty good, and we rank well with them on the pure search. They are just real expensive to list our pages.
So are a lot of others, strange how this rumour came about at this precise time.
>definate possibility with a wink
I'd go with the hard facts, "definate possibilities" are for those who rank on page two.
imho, it was probably a strategically timed, deliberately planned "leak." If people think the switch might happen, they'd most likely sign up in a hurry prior to the price increase as well as not too long after. After all, who knows when another increase will happen, right? Might as well get in while it's $15 or $25 and not yet $50.
So deliberately engineering a little "leak" at this time could well provide Inktomi with added leverage in negotiations with Yahoo, in the event they're actually going on. And if it's not so, or it doesn't happen, so what? Inktomi could feign innocence altogether, since it was just an unconfirmed rumor that started to spread.
Whether true or not, I really believe this rumor was deliberately leaked in strategic places through strategic information "sources"; it would take a lot to convince me otherwise.
Added:
newriver, I also happened to see that yesterday, as well as the wink. The information supposedly came from someone who was told by someone with an "inside track" with Inktomi. There was nothing else revealed except to nominally bring it up, which is exactly what's to be expected.
So the rumor spreads around, with Inktomi and PT apparently keeping their hands clean. The public silence is deafening. Actually, I believe Inktomi is digging themselves in deeper and deeper. There's enough to provide material for a novel by Robin Cook, there's so much in the way of deception that's gone on. It can't last forever; I just hope it doesn't eventually hurt everyone.
1) In the current state of the economy, will Yahoo be here in 1 year?
2) If INK results start showing up in the Y? serps, will there be a mass exodus of users to Google, further eroding the financial outlook at Y?
Right now, everytime someone clicks on the web pages link and finds what they're looking for, they are presented with a logo and a link to Google.
How smart is that? You're paying Google a ton of money for the search results and you are also providing free advertising/branding that is contributing to their dramatic increase in market share?
Even if Ink didn't offer any kind of rev share program, they would still be a better choice (strictly from a business point of view) because Yahoo would no longer be building a main competitor.
I think that's already happening. If you are a regular Yahoo user and you start to see how often the things you're looking for are showing up in the web page matches, how long will it take befoe you click on the Google link and start searching Google directly?
It's the equivalent of Yahoo saying "Sorry, our search engine wasn't good enough to help you find what you were looking for. However, we were able to find some relevant pages at a new up-and-coming search engine called Google. When you get a chance, you should really take the time to check them out!!
At least with Ink, the results appear to come from Yahoo. Even if the Ink serps aren't as good, at least Yahoo wouldn't be pointing the way to Google. All the dissatisfied users would have to go find it on their own.
It did not seem to hurt Y! when they had the INK SERP before.
(Although I do like the Google SERP better)
Marty
