IndustryChanges Afoot at Yahoo & MSN

Changes Afoot at Yahoo & MSN

Search engine marketers have long been awaiting changes at Yahoo and MSN. Finally, signs of transition are beginning to appear.

Search engine marketers have long been awaiting changes at Yahoo and MSN. Finally, signs of transition are beginning to appear.

A longer version of this article that goes into more details about the changes at Yahoo and MSN is available to Search Engine Watch members.
Click here to learn more about becoming a member
.

Yahoo has begun crawling the web with a new indexing robot — foreshadowing some interesting potential developments as it gets ready to drop Google as its primary search partner.

The new robot is called Yahoo Slurp, maintaining consistency with the Inktomi Slurp crawler, purchased by Yahoo more than a year ago. Although the crawler has many similarities to the Inktomi crawler, there are some interesting new features described on the help page for the robot.

One is that the crawler is collecting documents from the web to create a “searchable index for search services using the Yahoo search engine. For months, speculation on various search engine forums has focused on Yahoo’s presumed switch from the Google index to the Inktomi index.

But other features described on the help page suggest something more is afoot.

For example, although the crawler is functional (and if you have a web site, you can see its footprints in your logs), Yahoo says that crawled pages may not show up in search results. Why? According to the Yahoo Search FAQ, “The documents will be indexed and included into the search database in the near future.”

Yahoo is also now creating a cache of web pages similar to Google’s.

What else is changing at Yahoo? The company won’t comment yet.

Meanwhile, over at MSN, LookSmart listings have been dropped, and Inktomi results have been promoted. MSN has also rolled out a new search beta. More details are available to Search Engine Watch members at the link below. We’re tracking the new developments at Yahoo and MSN closely and will have full details in an upcoming SearchDay as soon as they’re available.

A longer version of this article that goes into more details about the changes at Yahoo and MSN is available to Search Engine Watch members.
Click here to learn more about becoming a member
.

Search Headlines

NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication’s search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.

Piercing a Silicon Valley stereotype…
CNET Feb 17 2004 12:06PM GMT
Search wars are about to get personal…
CNET Feb 17 2004 12:06PM GMT
Music piracy case tests Net free speech…
Globe and Mail Feb 17 2004 11:50AM GMT
News Sites Seek Readers via Search Ads…
dmnews.com Feb 17 2004 6:09AM GMT
Program blocks pop-ups at source…
Washington Times Feb 17 2004 5:33AM GMT
YahooKimo to focus on Net searchers…
China Post Feb 17 2004 3:14AM GMT
5 years ago: Playboy gets legal with browsers…
Silicon.com Feb 13 2004 4:46PM GMT
FTC Warns Against ‘No-Spam’ Copycat Site…
dmnews.com Feb 13 2004 6:15AM GMT
Lycos Shifts Focus, Outsources Ad Duties…
dmnews.com Feb 13 2004 6:15AM GMT
Search Propels Online Ad Growth…
dmnews.com Feb 13 2004 6:15AM GMT
Google Bans Environmental Group’s Ads…
SiliconValley.com Feb 13 2004 2:35AM GMT
Web publishers could be liable for libel Europe-wide…
Journalism.co.uk Feb 12 2004 1:54PM GMT
Bloggers threaten revolt after Google swaps standards…
ZDNet UK Feb 12 2004 9:22AM GMT
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