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Search Sands Shift as Yahoo! Prepares to Drop Google
By Pamela ParkerYahoo!’s (Quote, Chart) expected algorithmic search switch from Google to Inktomi will come in the next few months, according to search engine marketing execs who have spoken with Yahoo! employees. The change, while widely expected, will likely create huge disruptions in Web traffic patterns.
The news comes just as Google-watchers whet their appetites for the search player’s expected IPO. Yesterday, Bloomberg News, citing unnamed bankers, reported that Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has chosen Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to head up a group of underwriters that would include Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), J.P. Morgan Chase, Thomas Weisel Partners and WR Hambrecht.
The infusion of cash the IPO is expected to bring makes it all the more important that Yahoo! divorce itself from its rival. It also needs to fully integrate its acquisition of Inktomi, which it purchased for about $235 million in December of 2002.
“Our short-term goal will be to have [the Yahoo! network throughout] the entire world using our algorithmic search in Inktomi,” said Terry Semel, CEO of Yahoo!, speaking yesterday at the Smith Barney Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix. “We really feel that we’ve only just begun. We’ve been working very closely with both Inktomi and Overture outside of the U.S. We’ve been introducing both of those platforms to our search outside of the U.S.”
The move has been widely expected, with many in the industry speculating that Yahoo! has been holding off until its contract with Google expires. The terms of that contract haven’t been made public, but some say Yahoo! is preparing to flip the switch in March.
“It’s long been known that they were going to dump Google, and they’ve actually hurt their reputation by not having switched yet,” said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com and a well-known search expert. “My best guess is they’ve held off so long for contractual reasons.” (SearchEngineWatch shares a parent company with this publication.)
By the time the change comes, Inktomi will be providing algorithmic search results across both Yahoo!’s network and MSN’s, since Inktomi results are expected to be fully integrated at MSN later this month.
“It will be a black day for many Web site owners who are ranked well in Google and enjoy free traffic from Yahoo! as a result,” said Fredrick Marckini, CEO of search engine marketing firm iProspect. “The instant the switch happens, they will lose as much as half of their traffic.”
The move may prove to be a boon for Inktomi’s paid inclusion business. Paid inclusion lets marketers pay to have their pages included in a search engine’s database, but doesn’t guarantee them a certain ranking in results. Inktomi offers paid inclusion, but Google doesn’t, because execs feel including paid listings would besmirch the search engine’s editorial integrity.
CEO Semel doesn’t have any such qualms, however, saying that the company intends to roll out both paid search, through Overture, and paid inclusion on all of its properties, worldwide.
“The biggest opportunity has to be in the fact that search will continue to grow. Other forms of search will continue to come about, whether that be something that looks like Yahoo! Shopping this past Thanksgiving and Christmastime, which takes advantage of algorithmic search, or whether that goes to other areas [such as to] more personalized search, to other local search, [and to] other areas that search has only just begun in,” said Semel. “So we see enormous possibilities on a worldwide basis in a very very high margin business that fully takes advantage of our huge audience.”
The constant and swift development of the search market will leave marketers scrambling to adjust as alliances form, are broken, and continue to shift.
“Optimizing an SEM spend is a little bit like trying to stand up in a rough ocean. When the big waves form, the sand literally shifts under your feet and you have to change your position to remain upright,” said Marckini. “In the eight year history of this space, the search engine landscape never stays static for more than eight or ten months at a time.”
Anybody knows how to get into the Inktomi index? I was there before but I can’t find my site anymore (OptimalGambling.com).
I f I remember correctly I paid to index my homepage about a year and a half ago, and my whole site got listed.I thought it wasn’t really necessary to pay, so I didn’t renew.
BTW I used this link: http://search.positiontech.com/InktomiSearch/PositionTechSearch.jsp when searching on Inktomi.
I think I read in search engine news that if you don’t pay they don’t relist you.
Inktomi also does free listings. From SearchEngineWatch.com
(http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167871)Inktomi is an important crawler-based search engine because it provides “backup” results to the popular MSN Search (see the Search Engine Results Chart for what “backup” results are). It was also recently purchased by Yahoo and so may be providing results to Yahoo in the near future.
As covered with Google, building links is the best way to get listed for free. Unlike Google, Inktomi has no free Add URL page. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get listed, however. Inktomi crawls the web, so if you have links pointing at your web site, you may get included naturally.
What if you aren’t picked up for free? Inktomi has a “paid inclusion” program that will guarantee to add the pages you submit within two days and keep revisiting it on a regular basis for a year. Because of this, for a brand new site, it’s well recommended to use the program. You can quickly get yourself represented in Inktomi for a modest amount.
But there’s no guarantee. My site was indexed (all pages) before but I only paid for inclusion of the homepage. I might try that again.
And last but not least, also PFI doesn’t guarantee you get listed, as some people are experiencing problems with their PFI listings,
read f.e. here http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum1/2356.htmNo, I’m not saying that. Giving that Inktomi
– seems to index some sites for free;
– and doesn’t index some sites that pay for it;my question really is “How do I get in Inktomi”. I don’t like to pay if I don’t have a guarantee to get listed, and I don’t like to pay if I can get into Inktomi for free.
I’m looking for experiences from other webmasters. Did you pay for all your pages. Did you pay for just your homepage. Did you not pay and are you listed for free. Did you pay and didn’t get listed. Which service is the best guarantee to get listed (positiontech?) etc.
I need to get into Inktomi before Yahoo drops Google
I paid for inclusion of many of my sites. Perhaps it was short sighted, but I figured that was the quickest way to get listed.
They state they are a paid inclusion service and the fees are not exhorbitant so I thought it was a reasonable investment. I am not aware of any free ways of getting listed that are reliable, but if anyone is I wouldnt mind hearing about it either.
I pay happily for Inktomi, and will be even more happy to do so from now on, given the shift in importance.
Yes, I have seen some secondary pages included for free, but never homepages.
Every page I ever paid for was listed.
I think you have to have something really awful for them not to list it when you pay for inclusion.
Everything I’ve read about search engines and search engine optimization said that if you’re serious about Inktomi you’ll pay.
Doesn’t mean it’s necessarily so. But it sounds like it might be so.
I paid for inclusion last year. For my $39,- I received exactly 3 (that’s THREE) visitors in one year.
Even if the inclusion is not a big amount… $13,- per visitor is too much for me.
:rolleyes:
