Yahoo Says It will Switch to Inktomi First Quarter

[yankee]

Bad time for an IPO. From Yahoo's earning's release yesterday:
[zdnet.com.com...]

"Yahoo on Wednesday said it will drop search partner Google during the first quarter of 2004 in favor of its own technology, opening a new phase in the battle for Web search dominance."

[WebStart]

sem4U : Thanks for the input re: "finer 9, just go here for the Inktomi Pure Search ..."

I was just about to ask the question finer9 asked, when you answered 'finer9.'

Now -- one more question -- where do Ink's results appear currently on some major or minor SEs? HotBot?; MSN I would not count on though some say Ink is there, because it still seems to me MSN uses so many different sources, one can hardly tell where their results come from. Alta Vista results do not seem to match Ink pure search, but Hot Bot does; Lycos seems to match Google results; so where else, if anywhere else is Ink currently used by a significant SE for search results, in any significant way?

Sorry to sound so out of date, but I have to admit, about 2 years ago I quit paying attention to HotBot, Lycos, Excite, and Ink, and Open Directory, as Google did seem to capture the world and if you did not place on the big G, you just did not place at all.

[percentages]

>where do Ink's results appear currently on some major or minor SEs?

MSN is far from a minor search engine. It is the second most popular site on the Internet (after Yahoo) and delivers about 22% of referrals for equal positions (Google vs Yahoo vs MSN vs AOL vs Ask, the rest are very poor performers).

Good Ink positions for US sites vs bad Ink positions will today increase your traffic by 20% to 30%.....once Yahoo switches another 30% is likely to be added.

At this moment in time Google is still king, but Ink will be king by 5 to 10% once Yahoo makes the switch (Y! said it will happen in the next 2 months).

[Powdork]

I guess that's why your called %ages.:)
Very relevant statistics there. MSN does bring a lot of traffic for me. I took a small drop last week when Zeal got the axe but I still do well there. It's not pure inktomi, though. I can't wait for Yahoo to make some sort of switch. I do hope they keep the 20 results per page default and the lack of multiple listings per domains per page. I think that's good for everyone.

It's hard to think of a time when Google didn't have complete dominance.

[percentages]

>It's hard to think of a time when Google didn't have complete dominance.

No, back in 2000 google was an upstart that showed promise....I bet on it then, and it returned the favor.

Today my money is on Ink, the wheel is still in motion, but I'm not going to move my chips ;)

[WebStart]

percentages: I agree MSN is a major search engine; My main point, was that I am not sure its results are all from Ink. MSN always seems to return a jumble of providers, from Looksmart, to Ink to "its own," (?) [if it still has its own search function?]. I can never tell -- from searches I do in my area of ecommerce -- what results are from where, and they do always seem to be a mix. Plus, MSNs paid ads take such a significant bite out of each page, that by the time one gets to the upaid, one has seen so much, I am not sure having an unpaid listing on pg 1 matters on MSN.

Anyway -- outside of MSN (until Yahoo converts) I still wonder where else wold one see Ink results on major SEs?

[bafana]

this is a great news, for me

[kanetrain]

I think Ink is still a ways away from Prime Time. I'm certain they will get it right eventually, but there just not quite there yet.

I use a search engine for little bits of data and hard-to find informational stuff. I can't find it on INK. Sure, for highly commercial terms, I think Ink servers pretty relevant results, but for the more obscure stuff... especially NEW obscure stuff, it's just not there at INK.
I should say, that I rank decent on Ink, not great, but not horrible either. But that truly has nothing to do with my point.
I think there is a bit of a flaw in the Inktomi engine. It's just not current enough or big enough to be a real formidible competitor to Google yet. I think we sometimes forget, people don't just use search engines to find widgets and other things to buy. They use it to find little bits of data and current events and all kinds of stuff. Ink just hasn't quite arrived yet. I think they will... I just hope Yahoo doesn't release Ink it until it's better than it is right now.

[allanp73]

kanetrain
You're right. I think in order to make Inktomi better they just have to index more deeply and more often. I am excited to hear the Yahoo will switch I just wish they would get Inktomi to a more competitive state.

[loanuniverse]

Percentages:

When you said:

MSN is far from a minor search engine. It is the second most popular site on the Internet (after Yahoo) and delivers about 22% of referrals for equal positions

Does this mean that for a site getting 14% of its SE traffic from MSN, a reasonable assumption could be made that they don't rank as highly as they do in Google when they get 56.5% from Google itself?

Or do you mean that MSN delivers 22% of what Google delivers?

Thanks.