Rumour has it that Yahoo will replace Google following their acquisition of Inktomi; it thus lies in the line of expectations that they will use the latter as a search engine. During August, various public tests were conducted at Yahoo with Inktomi results.

We expect the transition to take place sometime in September. Perhaps, this transition will coincide with the new 'shopping' search function being currently tried out by Yahoo.

What to expect at the moment Yahoo switches to Inktomi?
No doubt, the traffic generated by Google will drop and that of Inktomi will rise.
How much of it will depend on the visitors that currently are being linked through via Yahoo or Google.
If Yahoo currently plays a significant part in your “traffic”, expect a marked change (except, of course, if you are already well positioned in Inktomi).

To check your current position in Inktomi, you can always use their search engine: to do this go to http://search.positiontech.com

This past August, Google added what we consider a handy option:
As of today, one can, aside from the standard search task, also use the searchfield as a calculator to carry out not just simple but even more complex calculations.

The calculator can perform mathematical computations, with simple arithmetic (5+2*2 or 2^20) or more complex calculations (e^(i pi)+1). You can also experiment with other numerical systems such as the hexadecimal and binary systems.

More information on this at http://www.google.be/intl/nl/help/features.html#calculator

You may already have noticed: Hit Magnet, the instrument par excellence to take your website to a permanent top position in the result lists of the search engines, takes on a new look .

It was an explicit choice to give the re-designed website of Hit Magnet the same 'Look and Feel' as the website of @iPower itself.

New functions are, amongst others:

• Complete integration with @iPower
• Use of our credit system
• A simpler & faster user interface (for instance, on loading of statistics)
• Improved ranking system
• Average position for all of your keywords

Use Hit Magnet to boost your website automatically and permanently to the top of the result lists and attract a crowd of visitors to your site. If that does not happen, you pay nothing!

Hit Magnet optimizes separate webpages for you and puts these on its own servers. These are precisely the pages that take you to a top position. And the pages that connect through to your own webpage.

This means that your customers and prospects not only find your website quickly but also end up exactly where they want to be.

The .EU tld is expected to go live by the end of 2003. As with .be domain names, @iPower will become the official registrar for the .EU domains. As of this date, you can already pre-register your .eu domain.

Important points:

• The license holder must live in the European Union. This means that a Dutch national residing in Switzerland is not eligible to register an .EU domain.
• A list shall be drawn up of all “prohibited” domains. This list may contain, for instance, names of cities, names of kings, ... All of these domain names will be blocked to prevent their being registered. This list is not yet available at this moment.
• A sunrise period shall be implemented. This means that all businesses or organisations can register a claim for their .eu domain, which shall thereupon become impossible for third parties to register. The sunrise period shall start 3 months prior to the actual implementation. Check out our website for more information about what procedures to follow during the sunrise period.
• It is not possible for us to offer you guarantees that your .eu domain name will in effect be registered. There is the possibility that the .eu domain name you want will be on the list of prohibited domains. It is further possible that a business has made a claim to your domain name during the sunrise period. And if that were not enough, there is also the chance that another registrar has beaten us to the punch during the official start. To limit your risk, when the .eu domain you want cannot be registered, we shall offer you a new .eu, .be, .com, .net, .org, .co.uk, .org.uk, .info, .biz at your choice.

Brussels - Pisa - Stockholm, May 22nd 2003.Today, the Commission announced that it has chosen the EURid consortium to run the .eu TLD. EURid is a not for profit organisation that is built around the Belgian, Italian and Swedish registries.

This decision is the latest step in the process of creating a new European Top Level Domain extension. EURid responded to the Call for Expression of Interest that was launched by the European Commission in August last year. A panel of independent experts then evaluated the bids and indicated EURid as the best choice to run the .eu registry.

The three registries have very complementary competences :

The Belgian registry (DNS BE) has gone through a successful liberalisation at the end of 2000, an experience that is similar to the creation of a new registry. DNS BE will make available its automated registry system that is considered as one of the most advanced in the market.

The Italian registry (IIT-CNR), as a division of a well-known research institute, has developed tools for securing electronic transactions. Their security systems and the related know how, in combination with their experience of running a large registry will be a key factor in the success of the .eu registry.

The Swedish registry (NIC-SE) has been involved in the creation of Internet standards and has a long standing tradition of interactive consultation with the local and international Internet Community. This experience will be crucial in the start up phase of .eu. Recently, .se has made the step to an open and unrestricted registry.

While promoting virtual offices where competences are spread over different locations, EURid's head office will be located in Brussels and will house the main development and operational teams, as well as the support organisation focused on the central region. Other regional offices overlooking the northern and southern regions will be established in Sweden and Italy.

EURid will work exclusively through a network of registrars to promote competition. The registrars will have a completely automated registration system at their disposal to register .eu domain names for their customers, with minimal or no human intervention from the registry.

Although the .eu TLD is a relative latecomer to the market, EURid estimates that a potential of 1 million domain names after 1 year is still possible.

Next steps. In the coming weeks, negotiations will take place between the European Commission and EURid to finalise the agreement and to establish the public policy for the .eu registry. Once the administrative part is finalised, including the delegation from ICANN, EURid estimates that .eu can go life within the next 6 months.

It is clear that a lot of issues still need to be resolved and that some will depend on the definition of the public policy and on further negotiations with the European Commission. We will hold a press conference as soon as we have more details from these discussions with the Commission.