From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Inktomi to power @Home search (news.com)
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 13:54:55 -0500
Inktomi to power @Home search
By Janet Kornblum
July 22, 1998, 1:05 p.m. PT
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C24497%2C00.html?sas.mail
Search technology firm Inktomi today said it has licensed its search
engine and networking caching technologies to cable access provider
@Home.
While other search engine companies have transformed into portals,
Inktomi, which went public last month, is pushing to provide back-end
technological solutions to the Net's players.
Toward that goal, the company has been aggressively marketing its
products to various Net companies.
Other technology firms also have cashed in on the fight for Net traffic
by providing their wares to several players. Email and home page
technology firm WhoWhere, for example, announced earlier this month that
it had signed on 10 new partners-- including heavyweights such as Barnes
& Noble, Deja News, Individual Investor, and Women.com--bringing its
roster up to 40. WhoWhere private-labels its services so that sites can
incorporate community-building features without having to develop the
technology themselves.
The strategy appears to be working for Inktomi, at least for now.
Inktomi's stock has shot up along with other high-tech stocks and has
more than doubled since its IPO.
In April, Inktomi announced two major deals: one with America Online and
another with Digital Equipment, to provide them with caching software.
Inktomi also has been working for several months at developing a search
engine for Microsoft.
Today's deal with @Home marks a new foray for Inktomi into the
high-speed cable-access market.
"We're really excited to be working with a company like @Home," said
Paul Gauthier, chief technology officer and cofounder of Inktomi.
"They're the leader in high bandwidth and cable access marketplace."
Gauthier added that while Inktomi isn't necessarily setting out to
license both of its key products to every company, the move fits in with
its overall strategy to be "operating at every level of the network."
Inktomi's search engine will be incorporated into @Home's portal site,
and its caching service will be deployed across the @Home network.