It seems like it could be the Inktomi index, but the serps are very different.
They have also taken away the option to search only on UK results.
Anyone have any further information?
I have noticed large amounts of spidering activity on non-paid sites by Ink recently so it's by no means a pay-only SE.
>And I still think the Ink SERPS are pretty thin beer
I agree with this for current results. Anyone else noticed the lack of descriptions for a large amount of listings?
Wouldn't this be a question for OFTEL or someone similar?
You could try the British Internet Publishers Alliance (http://www.bipa.co.uk/), who are a pressure group who are lobbying against the size of BBCi, but i don't think Oftel are the right ones to go to.
The BBC is regulated by the department of Culture, Media and Sport i think, but there are plans for it to come under Ofcom's jurisdiction.
You could also try complaining to the BBC itself?! - they are scaling back alot of service so may be willing to listen to people given that they are paranoid about action being taken by the government.
IMHO i think the BBC are completely within their rights to recommend sites they see as useful/well designed/interesting etc. but that's just my view.
Cheers.
<edit reason>added relevancy</edit reason>
It's true that it would be nice to have a bit more transparency regarding the source of their results.
[added]yep, email@bbc.co.uk (the listed email address on the search help page) doesn't work...[/added]
With inktomi? I don't think so...
<snip>
[edited by: engine at 8:47 am (utc) on Mar. 27, 2003]
[edit reason] No e-mail quotes, thanks. [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
The BBC wants to work with the company who's results best suit their requirements. Make your own mind on that point, personally for the UK, it could not be more obvious to see which results internet users wish to use, but the BBC think Google does not supply them the best results. The BBC put the contract for results out to tender "in accordance with EU Procurement Legislation", what ever that is. The BBC then spent several
months evaluating various companies and potential service providers, using a series of tests designed to measure each company and service over many criteria, including technical and editorial considerations.. The decision was then reached to use Inktomi instead of Google.
Are BBC even allowed to make money? :)
It's complicated. The BBC qua BBC isn't, but its commercial arm, "BBC Worldwide", is.
BBC Worldwide isn't meant to profit from publically funded services. And it's meant to be restricted from competing directly with the private sector in certain ways. There isn't meant to be cross-over of staff or resources between the two.
In practise none of these is enforced very well.
There's been a lot of contention about the anti-competitive nature of some of the beeb's activities, particularly around the recently-approved "digital curriculum" and the BBC's domestic and international rolling news channels.
Wouldn't this be a question for OFTEL or someone similar?
You could write a letter to your MP (www.faxyourmp.co.uk) and ask them to forward it to the DCMS (Dept. of Culture, Media & Sport), which has oversight of the BBC. Better to go through your MP than write directly to the department, as then the department will have to reply (although it'll probably just be waffle).
Andy.
Craig
They definitely have commercial restrictions as part of the publicly-funded BBC (I used to work there and there are some very odd anomalies however).
We've tried to get links from them to our site for a unique added value service and the editors pushed it through until the senior bosses realised that we made money (LOL) from advertising banners and text links. That scuppered that one and the obvious PR implication!
However, if they were allowed to be a bit more commercial (provided an OFTEL or OFWAT equivalent was available to monitor) perhaps the BBC would become less dependent on the annual licence fee!
TW
[media.guardian.co.uk...]
Culture secretary Tessa Jowell today told the BBC it has two months to justify its £112m online budget ahead of a government review.
As quickly as they appeared, Inktomi results seem to have been removed from BBC search. Anyone know whats going on?
R.
It looks closer to Google than Inktomi, but i'm not sure...
It looks closer to Google than Inktomi
That's what I thought orignally, but then got confused as to why it's showing such out of date information for one of my sites - it's been updated in Google's main index for several months.
It's far too late in the afternoon to deal with things like this - you there!...show me the way to the pub!
R.
Apparently BBC search had technical problems yesterday, and they confirmed BBCi search is still using an Inktomi feed.
Although I have just checked, and the state of play has not changed....
[edited by: boblington at 11:54 am (utc) on May 2, 2003]
Dave
