Inktomi Launches Professional Services, Shopping Engine

Inktomi Corp. Tuesday debuted its
Professional Services unit aimed at ISPs building global large-scale Internet
services.

In addition, Inktomi also announced a variety of
Internet companies have adopted Inktomi Shopping Engine, its online shopping platform . The company said 15 portals and more than 300
e-tailers have signed with Inktomi to employ the commerce service.

Inktomi’s Professional Services program will be available to Inktomi
customers and
through resellers will offer training support, proof-of-concept consulting,
and short and
long-term consulting packages. Consultants from Inktomi will provide onsite
help to
customers to streamline operations,
manage sustained growth, and develop new offerings.

Inktomi said new Traffic Server clients include Cable
& Wireless USA, Concentric Networks, Exodus Communications, Telefonica in
Spain, and Telepac in
Portugal. The company’s channel partner program now includes more than 20
partners in 12 countries.

Traffic Server is a carrier-class network cache which embeds
programmable intelligence into the network, providing a platform for ISPs,
backbone
companies, and hosting providers. Traffic
Server 2.0 also supports streaming media caching,
advanced features for Web hosting, and
support for other Internet protocols.

“AOL has been rated A+ by Inverse Network Technology for Web downloads, the
highest rating available, and Inktomi’s Traffic Server, which handles more
than 2.5 billion Web
requests per day, is a key part of our
Web service,” said Joe Barrett, America Online’s vice president of Internet operations.

“Inktomi’s
technology and onsite consulting experience has helped us to scale our
service to unprecedented sizes
while delivering high-quality performance to AOL members.”

Slated to launch next quarter, the Inktomi Shopping Engine will enable
online shoppers with
fast search access to more than a million products on the Web. The Shopping
Engine offers a platform for portals and destination sites to deliver
end-to-end shopping services, such as product and price comparison
shopping, feature comparisons and
research, and expert recommendations.

Over 300 e-tailers plan to use the Inktomi Shopping Engine, in a database
of one million products. The engine has 14 categories, including apparel
and jewelry, books and magazines, computer/video
games, computer hardware and software, consumer electronics, flowers,
cards, gifts, home and garden, movies and videos, music, office supplies, sporting goods and toys and games.

Participating sites includes Infoseek, GO Network, CNET and NBC’s Snap,
CNNfn, Delphi Forums, FamilyEducation Network, Fox Sports Online, FreeShop,
GeoCities, iSleuth.com,
LookSmart, PeopleWeb, Softnet’s ISP Channel, TV Guide Online, W3 Networks,
and ZDNet.

“Commerce revenue streams have become a strategic requirement for portals
and destination sites,” said
David Peterschmidt, Inktomi’s chief executive officer.

“By providing the
heavy machinery to help users
compare and purchase millions of products across the Web, we’re enabling
our partners to concentrate on
building customer relationships and unique content,” Peterschmidt said.

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