Did MSN dropped Inktomi?

[sri_gan]

Hi,

I was seeing the results of MSN is varying so large from last friday August 22 2003.

Did MSN completely switched to Looksmart listings now?

Could this be a buffer lane till MSN complete its own Search Algorithm?

Lets talk about this.

[ihelpyou]

No, I did a search yesterday and found inktomi results as well.

You have to keep going thru any looksmart results first, and then you come to the Inktomi results. They are labelled "web page" results.

[Webmaster T]

Correct, however you may want to keep an eye on MSN results if they are important to you. I read in a reliable source yesterday where MSN has already started to remove LookSmart from the results in the UK. The contract between them expires December 3rd. Other than the MSNbot this is the first indication of what form the "new platform" will take.

I believe they are spooked by others supplying results and want full control. I think they have also figured out that LookSmart may be a weak link in the quality of their results.

[guerrilla]

We all know that the evil empire has developed their own bot and I have seen some signs of it in visitor logs. Anybody know when they will drop Looksmart and Inktomi results and just post their own? Does anybody know anything about the algorithms? Are the results going to be link dependent like Google?

[ihelpyou]

No one knows anything, not even MSN at this point. No need to worry about it until it happens. :)

It can't happen soon enough though. LOL

Putting it this way, the Looksmart contract is up on December 3rd from what I understand. It's possible something will happen at that time. We just have to wait and see.

[sri_gan]

Lately,

1. I could see Inktomi reduced its free crawling and I suppose it is crawling only of Paid Inclusions and the domains registered with directories as paid and non paid.

2. MSN is sharply testing its beta feeds into search results.

3. Overture's Alltheweb and Google are in the race of showing how many pages they crawled.

[Net_Excitement]

i have started paying for inktomi inclusions, i hope msn wont drop inktomi because it will be big loss for me and many others.

[Net_Excitement]

From what i remember inktomi has a contract with msn for the next 2 years or so. It's possible the looksmart listings to be replaced by the msnbot crawled ones.

[Webmaster T]

Originally posted by Net_Excitement
From what i remember inktomi has a contract with msn for the next 2 years or so. It's possible the looksmart listings to be replaced by the msnbot crawled ones. Non-exclusive contract, that means MSN can drop them anytime, however they may still have to pay them something. Most contracts between results providers are non-exclusive IMO, that kind of contract is not the kind I would be counting on if I were making a decision about paying for services. If I were MSN I'd drop LookSmart and buy them for a song a few months later. Just the announcement about the UK listings dropping them caused the stock to tank a bit so imagine what happens when they drop them entirely. All L$ really have left is their feeds into Inktomi and others PFI programs.

[sri_gan]

I would agree with Webmaster T.

Lately if you see the MSN's offical submit a sit, it goes to Looksmart paid listings.

We may see a new turn after this December.

[ihelpyou]

MSN will Never keep Inktomi. They would never deal with Yahoo when they have their bot that will step in anyway. As far as a directory goes, well, they could use anything they wish including buying Looksmart. They will not keep Looksmart on as a partner, and they will not keep Inktomi.

[JuniorHarris]

Having caught an Overture/alltheweb spider in the logs, in might make sense to simply backfill with those listings. I could see Overture/alltheweb replacing Looksmart as well as inktomi eventually. Why pay for multiple sources, when one vendor provides it all. From a business perspective it makes cost savings sense, but maybe not from a usability standpoint.