Earlier today, I spoke with eMarketing Strategist Rodney Brown of http://www.spheri.ca, whom you all know as fathom here on WebProWorld, regarding his views on Inktomi as a search engine in general.

A Search Engine, by Any Other Name... "When it comes down to it," Rodney told me, "a search engine is a search engine is a search engine. Two things make a good search engine and they are: Do the visitors find what they want? And do they like the interface? It has nothing to do wth ranking; those are questions the search engine optimization expert's are concerned with."

Stealing the Market Share. When asked what changes Inktomi would have to make to get to Google's level, Rodney reiterated views he's expressed previously here in the forums: "I don't think it's so much what changes they make as it is completely based on Google making mistakes. If people find what they want and if people are happy, they won't jump ship. ... You can use marketing ploys and branding and try to get new market share but can you physically acquire lost market share? Can Yahoo try to steal its lost market share from Google? There is a very low likelihood of that happening."

Monkey See, Monkey Do? He agrees with Jill that we shouldn't worry about making any changes in site optimization specifically for Inktomi or any other search engine. "If you optimize right now for Google, it basically comes down to optimizing for the visitor. The thing that makes Google Google is most companies are mimicking what Google are doing so there's not going to be much of a difference. ... I don't even look at Inktomi and MSN and Teoma because all sites that rank well in Google rank well there, but there isn't that much difference between their algorithms."

Nothing's set in stone. As we all know, the internet is full of gossip and hype. Rodney, who has been following this situation closely, also isn't too worried about Yahoo switching to Inktomi search results any time soon. He warns not to believe everything you see, read, or hear, and instead offers his more practical view: "When it comes right down to it, I carefully read all the documentation put out and I've never seen any confirmation of this, so right now it's all speculation. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's blown out of proportion."

Even if a dramatic change does take place, "it isn't going to happen over night." After all, it took Google five to six years to develop its market share, and he believes the changes at Yahoo will also be gradual.

Could Yahoo regain control? Rodney admits to this possibility, although it's not necessarily probable. But only time will tell...