eBay, Inktomi push personalized shopping.

eBay Inc., the booming online auction site unveiled a service called Personal Shopper, created with technology from NetMind Technologies Inc. Personal Shopper wades through eBay_s massive inventory and sends users e-mail when an item they want becomes available at a specified price. Meanwhile, Inktomi Corp. agreed Thursday to acquire Impulse Buy Network for about $113 million in stock. Impulse Buy provides technology for banner ads and special messages that flash, blink or scroll on-screen -- the online equivalent of special shelf or counter displays designed to boost spur-of-the-moment purchases. Personal Shopper "allows our customers to shop 24 hours a day, or to shop with their eyes closed," said B. Swette, senior vice president of marketing at San Jose-based eBay. The service uses so-called "change detection" technology made by Campbell-based NetMind. The technology monitors any kind of information on the Web, down to considerable levels of detail, and sends alerts when that information changes. The alerts can be sent out over the Web, e-mail, pager of cellular phone. "The first really killer application on the Web was search," said M. Freivald, president and chief executive of NetMind. Meanwhile, Inktomi, a leader in software used by Web companies such as Yahoo Inc., America Online Inc. and GeoCities, will use Impulse Buy_s technology to supplement its online shopping software, due out at the end of the quarter. The San Mateo company started out selling search-engine software and caching, or software that boosts network performance. Now, Inktomi is rapidly moving into the business of making online shopping technology. Inktomi is growing rapidly but is not yet profitable.