All the while MSN/AOL are showing Ink it's still worth the fee, once they get dropped, if ever, that will be the nail in the coffin for ink in the UK.

BTOpenworld has shown significantly in our referrer logs for a while now. I'm in anticipation of what will come of adding Google - our major, major referrer - to the results.
I am also looking at it from that point of view, we have many sites that we cannot afford to list in Ink but perform well on Google an Fast.
Reading the article in this months Revolution about the CEO of Inktomi, I get the feeling their search services being dropped isn't far around the corner. His concentration was so much more on network security etc etc - for a CEO to not even mention search in his fleeting visit to the UK could only suggest that. No?
Mixed blessing if Ink does die out in the UK.

plus:
Nobody likes Inktomi:)
Google costs less

minus:
What about all that money I spent!
Where will all the spammers go next?
We all love Google - but we need some traffic from elsewhere for those PR0 days (weeks, months:()
And what if google pulls the rug and starts to charge for some type of PFI, will we all in 2 years wondering when ink will come back into the game
And what if google pulls the rug and starts to charge for some type of PFI

...and isn't that the scary thing.

Love them as I do, I am very uncomfortable with their dominant position at the moment.

I mean, you don't want to go putting ideas in their heads, but what would most businesses do in their shoes ?
yep, thats why I hope ink hang around, after all we don't want google to get toooo big
Ink is not the only Google competitor around, there are also Fast, Wisenut and Teoma to consider.
Thats Fast, Looksmart and AskJeeves of course:)

But I take your point.

My worry is that I don't see the others making up much ground.

Still, it only takes one shot through the foot to change things - ask AltaVista.
As much as I love Google because of its referrer-pull...having too many eggs in the Google basket means one of two things - create a larger network of independent sites to promote your product/service or spend more money on other SE's...
.......and as another empty bottle of Southern Comfort goes in the bin.... :)The results on BT LS synd are from the whole of Google not UK filtered and are different again from the search term given to google ie. Head Scratching UK is different on BT LS synd than on Google. I have a No.1 in Google but a also ran via BT . On another search term I have a LS featured Site.

For two weeks it was just great......back to the SC!

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