Being that I am the resident Inktomi guy (soon to be the Yahoo dude) here at seroundtable.com. Thought it would be helpful to post some recent Inktomi related discussions about what happened to the long time Inktomi network. What Yahoo's role is in working with the Inktomi distribution. Whether MSN is still powered by Inktomi?
The short answer is that MSN is still powered by Inktomi, and some of its results are getting a little blending of Yahoo/Overture primary results, with the addition of paid ads, and some Looksmart sprinkings. Yahoo's offical work is the Inktomi is part of the Yahoo/Overture Network, and that all search technologies including the "historic Inktomi network" as Danny Sullivan put it, are now part of the "Yahoo Search Technology Index". So its easier now to just lump it all together and brand it Yahoo!, and ask questions later.
The good news is that if you paid for Inktomi before the switch, your urls will still remain in the Inktomi index until they expire. You can no longer purchase inclusion (PFI) into the Inktomi index, and additionally Inktomi Slurp, is now Yahoo Slurp. They may be appear as Yahoo! Slurp or inktomisearch.com in your logs of spider activity but virtually they are the same thing. However, just because you paid for inclusion into the Inktomi network a while back it does not mean you are going to get into the Yahoo! Index. Unfortunate, yes, but I think it was a smart move on Yahoo's part, in that you now have to find other means to get into Yahoo and its distribution network. So that means you have to find a way to get into Yahoo for free (not difficult at all) or pay for Site Match, and have your site reviewed and ranked but pay for it. Be sure to check out the good thread on the topic over at SEW.
Forum coverage at Search Engine Watch forums - MSN Powered by Inktomi?
