Yahoo Purchases Search Service Inktomi

• Dec. 23, 2002

Monday Dec 23, 2002

 

Yahoo, Inc. announced today that it would pay $235 million for search service Inktomi.  The deal paves the way for Yahoo to become self sufficient once again, after recently signing a deal to purchase search results from the internet’s largest search engine, Google.

 

The Inktomi purchase allows Yahoo to become more competitive with its main search partner, Google.  This leads to the question, why?  After all, we know Google is becoming better at providing results people want, such as shopping results on Froogle, and news results that are refreshed virtually within minutes of being published.  It is clear that Google is aiming to become more of a central source for web information.  Yet why would Yahoo threaten their relationship?

 

There are many scenarios which could account for the purchase.

 

First, Yahoo wishes to end it’s partnership with Google.  This doesn’t seem likely, though, as Yahoo has said in the past that their most recent agreement with Google is “long term”.

 

Second, Yahoo supplies the additional results merged into existing search results. This seems more likely than dumping Google, as they would then be providing more breadth of search to its users.  Still not too likely though, as it may be confusing to some users.

 

Third, Yahoo merges their directory with the Inktomi database, and continues to charge the per page inclusion fee that Inktomi started.  This would allow them to keep making money on inclusion, while providing relevant search results, and as a bonus, they wouldn’t have to payroll a bunch of human editors, because Inktomi inclusion is crawler based.

 

There are, of course, many other scenarios which could play out in the weeks and months to come.  Right now it’s anyone’s guess as to what Yahoo has up their sleeves. 

 

Another question which comes to mind is this:  What is MSN going to do now?  The primary source of their results is/was Inktomi.  Will Yahoo maintain that relationship? If not, where will MSN turn for results?

 

One thing is for sure, this is an exciting new development in our ever changing SEO industry.

 

Rob Sullivan

Searchengineposition

www.searchengineposition.com