The Major Players


AOL Type: Directory Paid-placement partners: N/A Index partners: Google. Estranged from: N/A Notes: Fourth-largest search site as of March 2003 according to Nielsen/NetRatings.	Ask Jeeves Type: Engine Paid-placement partners: Google. Index partners: N/A Estranged from: N/A Notes: Uses Teoma's sorting technology (teoma.com) for its natural-language searches.
Google Type: Engine Paid-placement partners: AOL, Ask Jeeves. Index partner: AOL. Estranged from: Yahoo. Notes: Recently won a lawsuit filed by a company that claimed to artificially push customers' listings to the first pages of Google's results — and got irate when Google reworked its system to avoid such maneuvers.	Inktomi Type: Engine provider. Owned by: Yahoo. Paid-placement partners: N/A. Index partners:: Various, including HotBot, MSN, Excite, About.com, LookSmart. Estranged from: Various, including AOL. Notes: The power behind HotBot, the non-paid section of Overture, and many of the hot boom-era sites. Yahoo dumped Inktomi for Google in 2000, then acquired Inktomi in late 2002.
Overture Type: Engine Owned by: Yahoo. Paid-placement partners: HotBot, MSN, Excite. Index partners:: N/A Estranged from: Lycos. Notes: Recently acquired by Yahoo; Overture officials claim that the courtship had been in progress for over a year. Previously known as GoTo.com. Acquired AltaVista, and Fast Search & Transfer.	Yahoo Type: Directory. Owns:: Inktomi, Overture, AltaVista, Fast. Paid-placement partners: HotBot, MSN, Excite (via Overture). Index partners:: HotBot, MSN, Excite (via Inktomi); AllTheWeb, Lycos (via Fast, acquired in Overture purchase). Estranged from: Google. Notes: On a buying binge as they look to re-take the search lead.
Information - USA Today