Inktomi killed Inktomi long before Google helped put the nail in the coffin.
What the article doesn't say is Inktomi had a dual sided business. One side was in Caching Proxies the other was licensing a search API.
Inktomi decided to focus on the caching proxy business and de-emphasized their search product, only to watch the proxy business evaporate as internet bandwidth became cheaper/better.
The focus on a shrinking market (proxies) and the lack of focus on growing market (search) killed them. Had search been a priority from the beginning things may have ended very differently with Inktomi creating their own front end.
Indeed. Inktomi also tried to position themselves as an arms supplier to the CDN business. It didn't help that the CDN business basically disappeared from 2001-2004, and that CDNs, to this day, rarely buy software.
I was going to mention this. It seemed like the management at Inktomi let it fall once the engineers started using Google search engines. Their response is a likely bellweather of the attitude of the time.
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Inktomi killed Inktomi long before Google helped put the nail in the coffin.
What the article doesn't say is Inktomi had a dual sided business. One side was in Caching Proxies the other was licensing a search API.
Inktomi decided to focus on the caching proxy business and de-emphasized their search product, only to watch the proxy business evaporate as internet bandwidth became cheaper/better.
The focus on a shrinking market (proxies) and the lack of focus on growing market (search) killed them. Had search been a priority from the beginning things may have ended very differently with Inktomi creating their own front end.
Thanks for that. I too remember Inktomi much more as the "cache kings" with licensed search a secondary focus.
Indeed. Inktomi also tried to position themselves as an arms supplier to the CDN business. It didn't help that the CDN business basically disappeared from 2001-2004, and that CDNs, to this day, rarely buy software.
I was going to mention this. It seemed like the management at Inktomi let it fall once the engineers started using Google search engines. Their response is a likely bellweather of the attitude of the time.