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And I was just thinking of starting a thread on what MSN's next move might be. Didn't think they would extend the relationship that long.
Where did Ink say this at?
search for '2005'
"In February 2003, Microsoft extended its agreement with us to provide Web search services through December, 2005."
Yahoo :)
Overture :(
I think it just means MSN saw the Over/Alta deal going down and decided it was time to sign with Ink before things went south. They wanted to get it done before the alta deal was done (more leverage that way).
edgar ink q4 [eol.finsys.com]
Major domination avoided for the near futre.
My question is this: I don't remember the exact numbers but inktomi paid inclusion were up significantly as they say primarily due to MSN ... IF Yahoo starts displaying ink results do they also raise the fee to get spidered?
Bad news for overture, though...I would think LookSmart as well might not be too thrilled about this one.
Sucks for OVER, I am very surprised MSN signed with a Yahoo product, very interesting.
Yep. This is just maintaining the status quo at MSN.
There's something goofy about this situation. Things like this don't go unnoticed and someone makes some noise about it somewhere when it happens.
moral: always read those quarterly reports closely and don't expect the other guys to pick the diamond out of the rough.
I had renewed and increased my Inktomi listings, only to find Overture buying AV within 24 hours - I thought I had wasted my money (I am only in Ink for MSN) - so this is great news for me!
after all, if they read it first time around, why didn't they beat us to the punch, so to speak?
Would have been nice if they had mentioned, "gee, we only found out -> after it was on the WebmasterWorld.com home page". :)
Probably soon. Biggest problem with Yahoo at the moment is they are just warmed over Google. Why use Yahoo when it is the same as Google? Because of MSN using Looksmart, and the Looksmart listings coming up first, it really isn't just Ink.
Both of these properties (AOL and AltaVista) need a lot of money, and work in order to start paying off.
Overture seems bent on hurting itself, especially with the rate hike.
Well, at least Over can stop paying Ink for the backfill they'll need for adding content to those lean PPC serps, and I guess Alta is not the black hole money pit it used to be.
I still think that AltaVista is a bit of a pit. They seem to take forever on their updates.
Is that really that important? Does it really say anything about MSN's future partner?
The only hard fact we know now is MSN is not going to change to a new backfill partner tomorrow.
Remember when Yahoo announced to prolong their contract with Google although Inktomi was already lined up? Nobody seriously had any doubts Yahoo still would drop Google.
The MSN/Inkt prolongment might very well be the exact same thing. After all we don't know any details about the contract.
To be quite honest, I'm not sure what the big deal is. It's not like MSN, Yahoo, or any of these big players are in a rush to make big changes that could potentially affect their user base. Whatever they do will take time.
In the case of OVER, if they actually thought MSN was going to jump ship that easily, I'd be surprised.
