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Google Growing Pains and Plans, AltaVista Unveils New Look and Features, Inktomi Unveils Web Search 9 - Search Engines News and Articles - November 23, 2002

Saturday, November 23, 2002, 11:35am
Inktomi, the company which provides the back-end data for many of the web's search engines, announced Wednesday that it has released Inktomi® Web Search 9.  The gist of the announcement was that Inktomi has dramatically improved its product, exceeding the competition (i.e., Google, though not specifically named) in relevance, freshness, and index size.

One touted new feature is called Smart Summaries. The summary provided in the search results page will be pulled from the database depending on the search querry, and may contain (1) snippits of text surrounding the keywords on the destination page, (2) synopsis written by human editors, or (3) descriptions provided by a paid inclusion provider. Another new feature is Geotargeting, through which paid inclusion customers are granted the ability to provide tailored local content. Inktomi has also added a spelling suggestion tool to the search results.

Very interesting new features include what Inktomi claims is the ability to deliver the right results for ambiguous terms. "Web Search 9 can intelligently consider a user's intention from their query, allowing for much higher quality results than looking only at the Web pages themselves." - Source. There is no explanation provided describing how Inktomi plans to do this, and it appears to be a claim, rather than a statement of fact. Another interesting feature is Inktomi's new Spam Filtering. According to Inktomi, editors will be fine tuning Web Search 9 to fight spam.

Inktomi search results are provided to About, HotBot, LookSmart, MSN, Overture, and others.

Inktomi Unveils Web Search 9
Next-Generation Technology Delivers Significantly Improved Relevance and Innovative User-Centric Search Experience
FOSTER CITY, Calif.
Nov. 20, 2002 - Inktomi Corp.

Tuesday, November 12, 2002, 9:47am
AltaVista unveiled a new design and many new features, one of which is AltaVista Search Trends, where you can see the most popular searches on AltaVista.

Thursday, October 31, 2002, 1:54pm
Google is updating itself right now. It does this about once a month. Webmasters who pay attention to search engine optimization issues are watching with baited breath.

Speaking of Google, Stefanie Olsen put together a birds-eye perspective article on the potential problems that arise as Google gains in prominence on the web.

The Google Gods
Does search engine's power threaten Web's independence?
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 31, 2002, 4:00 a.m. PT