Will we do well on Yahoo! Inktomi SE? How do we find out earlier?

[irock]

Hi, I was under the impression that some of us will do better on Inktomi than with Google. However, how do we find out our keyword position on Inktomi?

Thanks!

[twobe2b]

Hi irock,
a) search om msn.com (the have just today removed the 'directory listings' and now show the 'web pages' listing which I understand is pure inktomi.
OR
b) search on hotbot.com which shows the pure Inktomi listings too.

[percentages]

Pure INK results with no sponsors can be seen at:

[search.positiontech.com...]

[dazzlindonna]

msn isn't showing pure inktomi results, as i am listed at #3 on pure inktomi, but #9 on msn.

also, i'm showing as #8 on hotbot

[Marcia]

There's always a bit of a difference in the Ink results with different partners, but the rough estimate we get by looking at and comparing Pure Search, MSN and HotBot can give us a good enough idea for a starting point.

>>#9 on msn.

Subtract the number of paid listings included in their numbering and that'll give the actual Inktomi number. With 15 pages shown on the first page the ultimate goal should probably be to be on that first page, within the first 15.

I was getting Yahoo/Ink for a good number of weeks (back to Google now) and the pages did closely enough with the others not to worry about it, except for the first week, when the Yahoo results were heavily populated with Directory sites at the top.

I think it's safe to assume that Yahoo's will be somewhat different, but my feeling is that the major unknown factor is how being listed in their Directory - or not listed - will impact scoring.

We have no way of knowing at this point, probably the best guideline we've got to go with now is how pages are doing with the others. Between Pure Search, HotBot and MSN we can get a reasonably good idea of how pages are doing relative to pages being competed against.

[glengara]

As Marcia suggests it'll depend on the spin Y! gives to Ink results, e.g., for some KWs that I'm high in Ink, I'm low in MSN, but high in MSN.UK.
Interesting point on how a directory listing may impact.

[percentages]

>msn isn't showing pure inktomi results, as i am listed at #3 on pure inktomi, but #9 on msn.

I've noticed this from time to time as well. I used to think the Pure Ink search was the latest and it took MSN, Hotbot, and Overture a week or two to catch up. Recently I've noticed some changes where it appears the other way around. The Pure Ink results at PositionTech seem to be lagging.

>also, i'm showing as #8 on hotbot

MSN numbers the "Featured Sites" as if they were true SERPs. They are in fact sponsors directly paying MSN. If you have one or more "Featured Sites" shown for the term that will explain the difference with HotBot, which doesn't have "Featured Sites".

In conclusion it appears HotBot is showing the lastest Ink Results, MSN also does but sometimes a few "Featured Sites" confuse the numbering, Overture's backfill seems to be up-to-date (if you page through the sponsors first) and PT's Pure Ink search shows slightly out-of-date info at times.

[percentages]

>depend on the spin Y! gives to Ink results

[br.busca.yahoo.com...] has consistantly shown "Inktomi based" results instead of Google for months. It does however seem that Yahoo intend to give some preference to directory sites, and for regional Yahoo's the searches might have some preference for local tld's.

Out of interest the Ink results shown at Yahoo Brazil (after the local element and directory entries are removed) are yet another version of Ink's results. The differences aren't major, but I see several sites shuffled around by the odd position or 3.

[zeus]

Damn the pure inktomi results suck, I hope for Yahoo they will make some changes, but OK Google results has also not been the best lately, with all those php,asp, sites from Amazon, SE and other big names and ofcause those edu sites that is everywhere, because they have a single keyword on there site.

I just thought that we could look at yahoo.co.uk for what we could expect.

zeus

[percentages]

yahoo.co.uk still shows Google for me. So does yahoo.ca right now, even though it was showing Inktomi a couple of months ago.

Brazil is the only Yahoo I can find that seems fixed and consistant from the US (maybe different from other locations).