Google - Yahoo - Inktomi, Oh my!

[stcrim]

I know there's a lot of excitement about the possibility that Yahoo may or will be using Inktomi paid results.

I for one am very sad about it. Google is the top search engine because they have concentrated on quality - they've worked hard to deliver what the Internet user wants - unbiased quality results.

Anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort can get great results from Google.

Google may have been about a lot of apples in one basket, but it hasn't been that long ago that Inktomi had all those apples.

You and I will shift what we are doing to meet the new demands of ranking on Yahoo - but the average surfer will have lost the quality results that Google delivered in favor of paid advertising.

My 2 cents...

-s-

[nicebloke]

We'll just be carrying on as normal. :)

[rcjordan]

I'll leave the outcome up to market forces, which, I'll add, are what put Google at the top. From a web publisher's perspective, I welcome the diversity. I have thousands of free listings in INK, and they perform.

[EliteWeb]

Besides word of Ink results the word is that Y! may or will or is or is doing in specific words going to have the top result be a paid yahoo campaign rather the PPC results or whatever it is now but that is some huge dollars. But then again Yahoo has always been a huge advertising campaign for so many companies and they already have their name and presence so people still use them just because.

[edited by: EliteWeb at 4:07 pm (utc) on Jan. 8, 2003]

[troels nybo nielsen]

Yahoo are not _very_ big in Scandinavia, so for me as a webmaster it will not make any immediate significant difference if they go Inktomi. But of course it may change the whole landscape of search possibilities and thus have an indirect effect. If something happens to Google it will definitely be important for me and for many webmasters here.

[DaveN]

yahoo has bought INK but want will they do?

directory -> ink pfi -> free listing

if you where to throw all three into one big database and use a combination of ink's algo and yahoo's cleaning algo. I think we will get a good cross section depending on what weight they give to the directory/INK PFI over free listings

I for one will just sit and wait to see how things filter out

DaveN

[startup]

As RC said, we need Ink even if all we get is diversity.

Google had(has) the income and traffic from Yahoo to be able to build their SE and products. Google now must find a way of replacing both of these very valuable commodities.

Ink's downfall happened after they lost the Yahoo contract.

[steveb]

"Google now must find a way of replacing both of these very valuable commodities."

Huh? What have they lost? Google doesn't need to replace anything since they have almost everything.

[JamesR]

The diversity helps from getting locked out by some optimizers in some industries. Also keeps Google honest.

[startup]

Re: very valuable commodities.
Yahoo has removed the link to Google that used to be on every "Web Search" page. This alone is a huge loss of traffic(commodity) that fueled one of Google's primary sources of income, paid listings. At this time, Yahoo is paying Google to use the "Web" search results. If they do use Ink, Google will also lose this source of income(commodity).

[steveb]

"If they do use Ink, Google will also lose this source of income(commodity)."

No they won't. One doesn't relate to the other. Google has a longterm contract with Yahoo.

[startup]

The contract was never renewed.

[steveb]

?