Inktomi to pare back Index Connect Resellers

the first major fallout of the Yahoo acquisition...

[seoboy]

Inktomi sent out faxes today announcing that they are terminating their reseller agreements with the majority of their partners.

No word yet on who the "surviving" members are, but I think we can guess 1 or 2. Evidently they are shifting to core "service" providers... ie. shifting "away" from SEOs and SEMs...

My guess is that they are keeping a few 3rd parties just so that they can sell inclusion "outside" of the Yahoo realm (MSN, etc). But I'd anticipate Yahoo to start integrating the IC/PFI push into their site later this year... (I somehow doubt that Yahoo will mention that inclusion gets you visability on MSN, etc though)...

Former resellers will still be afforded close relationships with Inktomi, but will "sell" their services based on the value-add that they provide...rather than the inclusion service itself. At least that's my understanding...

seoboy

[skibum]

Less partners = less competition among them = higher prices?

[McMohan]

And I see that allready happening. Till yesterday about 600 pages of my site were indexed in Ink. SERPs were identical between MSN and Ink Pure search (positiontech). Today, Ink somehow got annoyed and only 99 pages of my site are listed. So no ranks from the pages which are removed. But on refering MSN, those ranks still exist and SERPs in MSN and Ink Pure Search are different. Hmm.. off to check out with Overture, HotBot...

Mc

[seoboy]

skibum --

i think the issue is more *standardized* pricing, rather than "higher" pricing. ultimately its kinda the same thing, but pricing has been all over the board for IC -- since it's negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

i also think that Ink wants to remove a lot of the confusion out there. too many folks were telling too many different stories. by limiting their network they can exercise more control over the sales pitch, pricing, basically everything...

seoboy

[twoline]

I just got a notice from our account person at PositionTech that Ink is reducing the number of trusted feed resellers from 18 to 6 effective June 2, and that PositionTech will be one of the 6 remaining resellers.

[Kamikaze]

Very Interesting... I see that they have updated the list:

[inktomi.com...]

[inktomi.com...]

-Kamikaze