April 15th -- The Deadline Looms

April 15th looms on the horizon, and while for many Americans that means the dreaded tax deadline, it's a deadline of a different sort in the internet world. Here in cyberspace, we are waiting to see what happens when Yahoo! officially quits using the Inktomi database, due to occur on April 15th.

On that date, presumably, Yahoo! will officially start using the database for Overture Site Match. The interesting thing is that Inktomi sites are supposed to be grandfathered into Site Match until their official expiration date, but Yahoo! has made it clear that those sites will not be favored with a Yahoo! listing, unless they happen to be picked up by the free spider. Unless you've upgraded to Site Match, you're out of luck when it comes to a guaranteed listing. It remains to be seen just how and where those listings will show up in the Yahoo! search results. The fate of the Yahoo! Directory, with its $299 annual submission fee, is even more unclear. The Directory will probably continue to exist, but is it really doing anyone enough good to warrant the investment? Unless that too is somehow integrated into the new web search results, the answer is probably no.

Some sites which had good listings in Inktomi, but indifferent or poor listings elsewhere, have enjoyed a month of sales growth and strong rankings as a result of their temporary Yahoo! prominence. Those sites will be hit hardest by the imminent shake-up, taking away their day in the sun. Although they still have the chance of MSN listings through Inktomi, that too has a finite life span, lasting only until MSN debuts their own crawler and database later this year.

Other sites, those with strong Google rankings for example, will notice the change less. Although they will miss any traffic they might have gotten through an Inktomi listing, their own more solid rankings across the board will work in their favor to keep traffic levels more steady. Although they will be curious to see what the new crawlers from Yahoo! and MSN can offer, they don't have as much to lose. They'll mostly be watching to see if their sites rank well there too, so they can benefit from even more exposure.

Those who have paid for Overture Site Match will probably be the ones watching Yahoo! most closely in the coming weeks. Although Site Match's flat-fee per-click service can be considerably less expensive than other PPC options for competitive keywords, it does not come cheap, as many people discovered when they subscribed to LookSmart's almost-identical service over the course of 2003. Costs can mount rapidly, and it remains to be seen whether or not the traffic bought is worth the price. For many smaller businesses, the answer, again, is probably no.

Site Match customers, not surprisingly, will be hoping that their listings rank highest in Yahoo!'s search results, a reward for their investment. Smaller businesses, unable to afford Site Match, are hoping hard that free search listings still have the opportunity for favorable rankings -- as are the internet purists, who hate to see every search engine overtaken by paid listings. Inktomi subscribers are crossing their fingers that MSN will continue using Inktomi's old database and sending them traffic for as long as possible, and additionally hoping that losing their Yahoo! rankings will not damage business too badly. They are also hoping that the new free crawlers from Yahoo! and MSN will look kindly on their websites,.

We have customers who fit into all of the above categories, and we will be watching their campaigns closely in the coming weeks, to see what is the best search engine strategy to pursue at this time. In a year of almost-constant search engine shake-ups, this is just the latest in a long line of challenges for internet professionals and their clients.

And that's what keeps us on our toes!