[wavesplash]

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.

[jusben1369]

Thanks for that. I too remember Inktomi much more as the "cache kings" with licensed search a secondary focus.

[squeed]

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.

[tomrod]

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.