Information Industry--Yahoo
Information Industry--Inktomi
Source: News.Com More on the Yahoo Acquisition of Inktomi
Paul Festa at News.Com provides analysis of the Yahoo! acquisition of Inktomi.
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Festa writes, "A primary question is whether Yahoo will be essentially shooting itself in the foot if it abandons Google's search technology, which the market in short order rewarded with the status of virtual standard-bearer." The market rewarded Google becuase it's very good technology but other very good technology deserves attention. A great deal of Google's success as a product and company is due to Google's superb marketing staff. It did a great deal for making it the "standard bearer".
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As many of us in the library world know very well, people want relevant answers (hopefully from an authoritative source), many searchers don't care where they come from, they'll take what they can get. For the last 18 months the general public and many info pro's have heard nothing but Google, Google, Google so that's where they go satisfied but unwilling (due in some respects to not knowing) anything else. Google is a high quality product and due a great deal of credit for making other web search tools better but other tools and resources are also very capable.
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Hopefully, 2003 will be about making choices, keeping current, and knowing the right tool for the info need. Nothing new here. It's precisely what info pros have always done by buiding a strong collection, knowing what's on the shelves, etc. I also hope 2003 will be the year librarians begin to remind the public that every answer is not found in Google, Jeeves, AlltheWeb, etc. but might be easily accessible through one of the many services, books, databases offered both by visiting the library in person or via remotely accessible services.
-- Last week The ResourceShelf included a link to a Wired article titled, "Google vs. Evil". In the post I said that these are two words we haven't see near each other. Today's article by Paul Festa also contains comments from a tech industry analyst that we also haven't seen (ever?) since the "Google era" began. From the article, "Google faces its inevitable ouster," wrote Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li in a research note published Monday. "With 23 percent of households visiting Google at least once a week, Yahoo must eventually switch its search over to Inktomi to ensure that Google doesn't gain too much power. With Inktomi, Yahoo makes search a strategic asset." [MSN and AOL] "will consider purchases of their own, potentially going after FAST or AskJeeves/Teoma to strengthen their search."
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