Are Fast & Inktomi really worth paying for?

[Artashes]

Hello all,

Its not a secret that FAST and Inktomi search engine delivery systems become more popular and somewhat more effective.

Naturally, the inclusion into these engines that power search delivery for companies like MSN, Lycos, AllTheWeb, Overture, Excite, Looksmart, HotBot and others is NOT free. I think the charge for the URL Submission is around $30-35 bucks (for each Fast and Inktomi).

But lately I've been hearing a lot of negativity from webmasters and web site owners that the system would not crawl more pages - just the one you submitted. At the same time, if you wait (could be up to 1 year), some engines may start indexing your web site and if they do - they will index all pages.

So the paradox is that when you pay - you get less and that's completely unfair. Anybody heard anything in this regard?

Best,

[clivewalker]

I have used Inktomi and FAST pay submissions and found them to be fast end efficient. I have not noticed that they do not index other pages - I am sure that some of my other pages have been indexed.

I believe that Inktomi used to say that they will find and index other pages within your website - although I have not read thru their FAQs recently - so if they do not do this anymore, they could be not fulfilling their side of the deal. However, I have not had problems with this and I am happy with what I paid for.

I agree that if you can wait a few months, you may get into some of the search engines within the Inktomi-FAST system. Most of our clients do not want to wait for this.

I would like to hear other experiences with this.

[Artashes]

Originally posted by clivewalker
I have used Inktomi and FAST pay submissions and found them to be fast end efficient. I have not noticed that they do not index other pages - I am sure that some of my other pages have been indexed.

Well, that's pretty much reassuring. So if they really do crawl all other pages after some time, then the submission price would be more than reasonable ($30 url within 72 hours).

But here is one more question - what happens after one year has past and you did not re-paid for initial submission? Would they kick your URL out or keep it? Because if they do delete it from the index, then you're back where you started: either waiting for a long time to have some engines index your page or pay them again. :confused:

Best,

[clivewalker]

I have not been with Inktomi a year yet - so don't know. However I suspect they will want you to pay for another year ? and will delete the listings unless renewed. Anyone else know more ?