12 replies to this topic

[juliesjewels]

I thought I read a while back that the Inktomi index powers MSN Search and Yahoo Web Search. But, PositionTech told me today that Inktomi does NOT power Y! or MSN.

Does anyone know which index provides results for Y! and MSN?

My reason for asking this question is because my site appears to be banned from Y! (for possible excessive cross-linking which has since been corrected). I've emailed Yahoo asking for re-inclusion and have not gotten a response (been about 2 weeks). Since I paid PositionTech to submit my URL to Inktomi earlier this year I turned to them for help with re-inclusion. But, that's not working either.

Any suggestions? :learn:

[Jill]

Julie, I think you misunderstood PositionTech.

Inktomi is owned by Yahoo and it does power Yahoo. MSN also uses the inktomi database, but they've removed all the trusted feed stuff and paid inclusion stuff.

MSN still gets stuff from the free inktomi database though.

[juliesjewels]

Thanks for replying to my post, Jill.

I would not be surprised if I did misunderstand PositionTech. After all, I am pretty new to this SEO thing. But, here's a direct quote from their email to me:

"Your URLs are indexed with Inktomi. For example:

[http://]www.hotbot.c...omi&prov=HotBot


Also, Inktomi provides search results to Hotbot, Overture, and About. They do not provide search results to Yahoo or MSN. If you are unhappy with the amount of clicks you have received lately, we suggest taking advantage of the 48 hour refresh. Changes made to your URLs will be picked up during the refresh and MAY improve your rankings.

Best Regards,

Support
Position Technologies, Inc.
Support@PositionTech.com"

Actually, this is the second email I received from PositionTech saying Inktomi does not provide results to Yahoo & MSN. I did not trust the first email I got from them so I waited a week and asked the question again.

Should my paid listing with PositionTech get me into Inktomi thus getting my URL into Yahoo and MSN? I'm thinking PositionTech is not actually putting my URL's in the Inktomi index. Something is stopping my URL from getting into Yahoo and MSN results.

[Jill]

I've sent an email to Chris Hermann at Position Tech regarding this.

It might be some simple mix up between what Yahoo is calling their various databases these days.

However, PositionTech's paid-inclusion still gets your URLs into Yahoo last I checked (last week!).

[MakeMeTop]

It can be confusing!

There is no longer a submission to the Inktomi index - there is to the Yahoo index. Paid inclusion accounts holding URLs which were for Inktomi (prior to the switch) only show up on Hotbot and Overture. PT are quite right to say that these Inktomi PFI pages won't show on MSN or Yahoo.

Of course, they may show up if covered by Yahoo's natural crawl, but not through Inktomi PFI.

Yahoo's Sitematch will get pages into Yahoo - plus the other old Inktomi partners (with the exception of MSN). A free crawl will get you into all sites including MSN.

Clear as mud, I think

[Jill]

Ohhh...so they were talking about pages in the old Paid inclusion program. I was thinking those were all gone already.

[juliesjewels]

Clear as mud, I think 

You sure are correct about the "clear as mud" part.

Thanks for helping us figure this out.

One last question. Given the fact that my site is 4 years old, well indexed by Google, been in Yahoo directory for years, and totally banned (missing) from Yahoo & MSN searches should I:

1. Pay to get into Yahoo Sitematch (which I really don't want to do unless absolutely necessary).

2. Wait until the free crawl comes around and the "Search Engine Gods" think my site is worthy of inclusion in MSN & Y! search results.

Can anyone think of anything else to do? I realize I made a mistake by excessive cross-linking in the past. I think I've suffered long enough.

I've learned my lesson... now I'm begging Yahoo & MSN to let me back in.

[OldWelshGuy]

Sometime during the next 12 months (maybe longer ? as Microsoft have just put longhorn back to 2007) MSN is going to switch to the new MSn database. Has your site been plgued by MSN bot? if yes, then chances are your going to appear in their index when they switch. leaving you only Yahoo to worry about.

[juliesjewels]

Has your site been plgued by MSN bot?

What?

Has my site been what by MSN bot? Sorry I don't understand. I'm trying to learn. :tooth:

How will I know if my site has been seen by MSN bot?

[OldWelshGuy]

OOPPS sorry I meant plagued as in does MSNbot visit lots.

OWG writes out

I am thick, I must use the spell check facility
I am thick, I must use the spell check facility
I am thick, I must use the spell check facility
I am thick, I must use the spell check facility
I am thick, I must use the spell check facility



You can tell what robots have visited your site from your web stats. Your hosting company probably have something in place.

[Marc]

Has my site been what by MSN bot? Sorry I don't understand. I'm trying to learn. :tooth:

How will I know if my site has been seen by MSN bot?

it's another indexing spider, you can do a search through your web logs or download a free web log parser that will show you what bots have come your way.

You can download Funnel Web® Analyzer to go through your logs...plus it's free


btw I just had to add this...the poor person is cursing the msn bot...
msnbot64047.search.msn.com:
bandwidth: 7625158 Kbytes (7.6GB)
files: 166806
hits: 167027

This is 29.4% of my sites bandwidth this month just from MSN Bot! Yesterday alone it used 1.3 GB bandwidth!

By comparison, Googles bot(s) have only used about 1.4GB total bandwidth this month.

How can I stop MSN from killing me! At this rate itwill use 15 GB this month! Just from being indexed!

HELP!!!!

Take care
Marc

[Jill]

Julie, imo, I wouldn't pay Yahoo to index what they already index for free.

[juliesjewels]

Marc, thanks for suggesting Funnel Web® Analyzer. I like it already.

OWG, no evidence of MSNbot during the last 10 days of logs. But, I think I will need to monitor this over the next few weeks. Which robot is WebCrawler? I see that one came to visit and I don't know which engine it is from.

Jill, I agree with you regarding paying Yahoo. I really, really want the spider to pick me up for free.

Thanks Everyone!!!