CNet Inc subsidiary and Yahoo lookalike Snap has partnered with Inktomi Corp in a deal that will Snap failover to Inktomi, just as Yahoo ‘fails over’ to AltaVista. Comparisons with the Lycos Inc acquisition of automated directory builder WiseWire earlier in the week (CI No 3,401) are not being entertained by either party. Inktomi says it sees itself as an OEM search vendor with multiple partners, not a company that buys out complementary technology. There’s no conflict with our web portal because we don’t have a web portal, says Inktomi’s Kevin Brown. Snap agrees that vendor independence was an important selling point. The directory once used Infoseek as a backend, but changed in part because Infoseek has its own competing site.
