Tough Times for Inktomi

• May. 22, 2001

The Inktomi search service has had a rough couple of days lately. Search Engine Optimization newsgroups are buzzing this morning with news that Internet giant America On-Line has apparently dropped Inktomi results from its search listings. This is the third such loss for Inktomi over the past few days, following the end of its partnerships with Canada.com and iWon.com. 

Until now, Inktomi results were quite prominent in AOL. The first page of AOL results is comprised of two sections, the 'Sponsored Links' section, which is made up simply of the top three Goto.com paid listings, and 'Matching Sites', which are five matches pulled from Open Directory search results. The inclusion of Inktomi results used to begin on the second page of AOL results, also under the heading of Matching Sites. The results were never purely Inktomi, as Direct Hit results seemed to be added to the mix, but the listings were prominent. Now Inktomi results are apparently displayed on AOL only if the search term used is very obscure, that is, if no matches can be found from any of AOL's other results providers. Inktomi's database has seems to have become something of a last resort for AOL Search.

The most important question raised by these developments is the effectiveness of paying for inclusion in the Inktomi database. Now that three of Inktomi's  more popular partners are no longer displaying its results, how much of an audience is the Inktomi database reaching? Another important fact, however, is that the Microsoft Network's search tool still relies heavily on results from Inktomi. Obviously Microsoft's audience is big enough to make paying for Inktomi a priority for website owners, but there are already rumors that MSN is looking for a new provider of search results.

So, a definitive conclusion about the future of Inktomi is hard to reach, but it's beginning to look fairly bleak. Incidentally, the word Inktomi comes from an old Lakota word meaning 'clever spider'; perhaps we'll be wondering if the Lakota people have a word for 'squashed spider' in the not too distant future.

Darren Downey
darren@searchengineposition.com