The move will make the Inktomi Shopping Engine available to many of the top portals for integration into their sites.

Recently, BT announced that it would be the first to use the Inktomi Shopping Engine for powering its web-based btspree.com service. Now, other portals can benefit from the same technology.

"Inktomi is in a unique position as the software infrastructure leader for the Internet providing private-label portal services to major portal and destination sites worldwide," said David Peterschmidt, president and CEO of Inktomi.

"The addition of our Shopping Engine will provide European portals with commerce capabilities and an innovative new service to offer their customers."

Inktomi's Web searching technology is built into its Shopping Engine, enabling users to search the Internet quickly for many different products. The engine compares prices and features, and is designed to scale with the growth of the Internet.

According to research firm Jupiter Communications, consumer online shopping in Western Europe will be EUR 18.6 billion ($20 billion) in 2003. At present, the core markets of the UK, France and Germany account for 65 per cent of online sales.