October 28, 2009

Barry Diller Willing to Sell Ask.com, But No Deal in the Works

Yesterday, on the IAC earnings conference call, CEO Barry Diller said that he'd be open to selling Ask.com. The media took off with the comments as if they were new and a deal was imminent. It's not.

A source familiar with the matter said there are currently no talks about an Ask.com acquisition or spinoff. Diller's comments were made in response to constant questions that IAC receives regarding their willingness to sell Ask.com. Their response has always been the same.

So why did everyone run with Diller's comments as if they were new? The "buzz" is probably more of a reaction to the recent Microsoft-Yahoo! deal plus the fact that IAC has, in fact, sold or spun off a bunch of companies in recent years. It's kind of what Barry Diller does.

Actually, Ask.com is a cash cow for IAC. This is something that often gets lost in the "search wars." The conversation is always framed about stealing search share from Google. But you don't have to have a ton of search share to be profitable.

If Diller is going to sell, it's going to need to be a sweet deal to make up for losing one of IAC's top three revenue-generators. Google probably has too much antitrust scrutiny right now. Microsoft has cash to burn, and it wouldn't be the first time speculation has been made about Microsoft buying Ask. Plus, in case you didn't notice, Bing imitated a lot of what we saw in Ask 3D. You have to think that adding 4% search market share all at once has crossed Steve Ballmer's mind. It would be a nice cherry on top of the deal struck with Yahoo!

So, yes, there's a likelihood that Ask.com will probably be sold at some point, but there's always been that chance.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 27, 2009

IAC Sees Profit Despite Declining Revenues for Third Quarter 2009

Ask.com and Citysearch parent company IAC released its third quarter earnings for 2009. Overall revenues came in at $336.6 million down 9% from the same quarter last year. However, profit for the quarter came in at $21.7 million, up from the $14.8 million loss suffered last year. The profits are largely due to the sales of OpenTable and Match Europe.

IAC's Media and Advertising Division, which contains Ask, Dictionary.com and Citysearch (among others), brought in $172.3 million in revenues, down 11% from last year.

Ask.com has seen a decrease in revenue per query. IAC attributed the decline to an improved search experience where searchers are using fewer clicks to find what they need. Another factor was a decrease in cost-per-click.

Citysearch also saw a decrease in revenue per query. This was attributed to a difficult display advertising environment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2009

Ask.com Unveils New Advertising Campaign

Ask.com has a new advertising campaign promoting their recently-launched Deals feature. The ad features people representing various demographics dancing and saying they want deals. The last guy, I swear, looks like a younger Jerry Springer. Also, the ad has bright colors and the cheekiness of the latest Old Navy ads.

What's that you say? You would like to do an Ask Deals dance? And you want to post it on the Internet for all to see? I have good news for you. Ask has created a microsite, AskDeals.com, where you can submit video of your dance - oh yeah and do some deal-searching.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2009

Bobby Labonte and Ask.com Raise Awareness for Breast Cancer at NASCAR Banking 500

Under the lights tonight at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, North Carolina, the number 96 car will be racing for more than just for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points. With 13,000 names of people affected by breast cancer, Bobby Labonte will be driving the NASCAR Banking 500 to raise breast cancer awareness. The effort is in conjunction with sponsor Ask.com and their robust campaign this October, which is breast cancer awareness month.

Additionally, the car will be painted pink and sport the Susan G. Komen for the Cure logo, which is the partner in Ask.com's campaign.

"It's great that a company like Ask.com is using their program to get the word out about breast cancer," said Labonte. "I'm happy to represent a company that aligns itself with worthy causes like Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Ask.com did a great job giving people a way to honor and remember loved ones affected by breast cancer."

Normally, I'm an Earnhardt, Jr. fan, but with search, cancer awareness and my home state of North Carolina colliding for one night, I'm gonna have to pull for #96 this time 'round.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 15, 2009

Bing's Growth Slows, Google Recoups Losses in comScore September 2009 Report

comScore has released their search engine share report for September 2009 and we're seeing yet another twist in the "Can Bing catch up with Google?" saga. You may remember that Bing has been on quite a roll since launch gaining over 1 percentage point, with Google and Yahoo! trading off the losses.

Well, the tides began to turn last month, with Google regaining 0.3% of its loss and Bing gaining another 0.1% in share, which is not the rate of growth they have been experiencing. This time, Yahoo! suffered the losses with a 0.5% decline. Ask.com and AOL held steady.

Another interesting tidbit is YouTube's continued growth and how it compares to search. Greg Jarboe already provided you with the scoop on how more YouTube videos were watched in August than searches conducted in September. Be sure to read his post because this is a phenomenon to watch for sure.

Also, read up on Promoted Videos, which is essentially paid search for YouTube. You can now purchase Promoted Videos in AdWords, which will appear in the search results over at YouTube.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

October 6, 2009

Ask.com's New Deals Feature Highlights Bargains in a Tough Economy

The recession has people using coupons more than ever. SEW readers know that because we cover data on increased coupon usage. Now, there's another option for bargain-hunters.

Today, Ask.com launched a new feature for its web search called Ask Deals. It reduces the number of clicks that consumers typically employ to access online coupons and bargains. Ask uses 40 coupon feeds as well as indexing forums for breaking info on deals.

"In a tough economy and with the holidays approaching, Ask Deals arrives at just the right time for consumers as a one-stop shop for value. It's the answer our users are looking for, too, since searches for coupons on Ask.com have shot up almost 50 percent in 2009," said Scott Garell, President, Ask Networks.

Ask.com is incorporating their new Deals feature throughout their web search. If you type in a shopping search term, it will prompt you with search filters (see the right sidebar) that can help you find bargains.

If you type in a search term that contains a deal-finding word, you'll notice deals at the top of the search results.

Additionally, the main Deals page is a dynamic, full-fledged coupon portal with new deals featured everyday.

What do you think of Ask Deals? Share your first impressions by leaving a comment below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 14, 2009

Ask.com Unveils 'Search for the Cure' to Raise Money for Breast Cancer Research

Ask.com is launching "Search for the Cure," which involves a $1 million contribution to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The investment will occur over the next year, through December 2010.

The contribution begins with the Ask.com audience. In order to contribute, simply complete tasks such as adding the Komen theme to your Ask.com homepage and then answer breast cancer-related questions during the month of October. You can, of course, use Ask.com to search for the right answer. Ask.com will donate 50 cents for every person that adds the skin and answers the questions correctly.

If you've played games like Mafia Wars or Yoville on Facebook, then you get the idea. Complete tasks and earn rewards. Except breast cancer research is not a game. These tasks really make a difference.

"The Ask.com Search for the Cure program seeks to empower consumers in the fight against breast cancer through an interactive, educational experience that doesn't cost them a dime or require much time - which we hope will encourage support of this important cause regardless of financial or schedule constraints," said Scott Garell, president of Ask Networks.

I have to admit, as a cancer survivor (though not of breast cancer), sometimes it seems like so much money is raised through races and athletic events. There's a sentiment among some cancer survivors to diversify fundraising for cancer research. Of course, Search for the Cure is right up my personal alley.

"One of our greatest opportunities in the fight to end breast cancer lies with the many people who tell us they want to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure but don't have the time or money to contribute," said Hala Moddelmog, chief executive officer of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. "Ask.com has created an easy, engaging, and cost-free way for consumers to get involved and generate funding that is crucial to breast cancer research and education. We are thrilled that Ask.com has joined our cause with such an innovative program. We're urging everyone to Search for the Cure by switching to Ask.com."

After October, Ask.com will continue their investment in Susan G. Komen for the Cure. However, they're not quite sure what that will look like yet. Right now, they're primarily focused on the October activities, which, of course, coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness month.

This isn't the first time Ask.com has paired up with a charity. Previously, Ask has teamed up with Autism Speaks for an autism advocacy effort as well.

What do you think of "Search for the Cure?" Leave us a comment and let us know.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 14, 2009

Dictionary.com Reaches 2.3 Million iPhone App Downloads

Dictionary.com is experiencing great success with their iPhone app. It has been downloaded 2.3 million times and has now been listed as one of Apple's 30 favorite apps. Plus, they're the #2 app in the reference category.

With over 60,000 apps in the iTunes App Store, it's certainly difficult to stand out. That makes Dictionary.com's accomplishments with their app all the more meaningful.

The App Store turns one year old this month. Over 1.5 billion downloads of apps have been recorded and reported by Apple.

Dictionary.com is owned by search engine Ask.com, which acquired the site in May of 2008.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 7, 2009

Ask.com's Restless Pursuit of Search

With all the attention that Google gets for its mammoth search market share, you would think it's impossible for anyone else to survive. But share does not determine profitability and, indeed, 4th place Ask.com is holding steady despite the volatility of external factors.

Despite Google's stronghold, the recent launches of Wolfram Alpha and Bing have exposed what many think are glaring holes in the search experience. But plugging these holes is something Ask.com has been attempting to do for years, with solutions similar to those put forth by Wolfram Alpha and Bing.

For its part, Wolfram Alpha is built on providing data and facts, but Ask.com was already providing those answers in their results. Bing appears revolutionary, unless you searched Ask 3D during its brief run.

They say imitation is flattering, but most searchers don't care whether Bing and Ask.com wore the same dress to the prom. What they want is results.

"We're not going to be satisfied until every user is," insists Ask.com President Scott Garell. It's one of his many iterations of a prevailing mantra: We won't rest.

In fact, Ask.com's consumer-centric strategy runs at full speed. Literally.

This year, Ask.com embarked on a large-scale NASCAR campaign. They're the official search engine for NASCAR, sponsor the #96 car driven by Bobby Labonte, and serve up crawl questions on the bottom of the screen during televised broadcasts of races.

NASCAR fans are one of the most loyal demographics in the United States. 25% of the country self-identifies as being a NASCAR fan and 17 out of the top 20 sporting events for attendance were NASCAR races.

The result of Ask.com's foray into NASCAR has been a positive one. There has been an uptick in searches for NASCAR-related keywords and the searchers are more likely to stick around and use Ask.com again.

It's not the first time Ask.com reached out to a passionate demographic. Previously, they skinned their front page to promote Autism Speaks, a nonprofit advocacy group. The skin is still available for users who wish to keep it permanently on their front page.

In May, they skinned their home page in a barter agreement with the movie Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian. Ask.com was featured in the movie in exchange for the 2-day flash image appearing on the home page. So far, the movie has made $167,706,959 at the box office.

Garell hinted at forthcoming marketing campaign similar to the NASCAR one, but thus far remains mum on the details.

These campaigns are just the tip of the iceberg for Ask.com. When Garell says he won't rest, he means it. Last year, Ask.com acquired the Dictionary.com sites and recently launched an new advertising campaign with Toyota Prius where they choose keywords for their display ads. Toyota has liked what they've seen so far and has bought more advertising inventory on the site.

Ask.com is also working on their Sponsored Listings. While Google is a partner in that effort, Ask.com decided not to renew their contract with LookSmart. They're working on the next generation of their Sponsored Listings platform, yet one more restless project on the Ask.com to do list.

Of course none of this matters unless searchers find good results. A few weeks ago, Ask.com announced that it's Q&A database had 300 million question and answer pairs. The questions come from answers sites all over the web. Since so many searchers on Ask.com type their query in the form of a question, the Q&A database is an integral part of the Ask.com strategy. Many of the Q&A pairs are also included in the main search results.

With all of these projects going on, it might be easy for the 6th largest network of sites to lose track of the little things. But Garell sees the whole picture, including the fact that it still takes searchers too many queries and too many clicks to find the answer they're looking for. He wants Ask.com's semantic technology to better understand searcher intent so that users find the answer they need the first time every time.

It's a big mission and one that not even larger search companies have been able to solve. Just like a good NASCAR race, you never know when an underdog is going to come along and shake up the leaderboard. And if Scott Garell has anything to say about it, the race ain't over 'til the checkerboard flag waves.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 17, 2009

Ask.com Unveils Database of 300 Million Q&A Pairs

We've known for awhile now that Answers sites are on the rise. It's the very core of search - finding answers to your questions or problems. Bing, Hunch, and Wolfram Alpha have all recently launched with the goal of providing answers quickly to searchers.

Ask.com is also recognizing the intentions of searchers for answers. According to comScore, searchers type searches in the form of a question on Ask.com much more than they do other search engines.

As a result, it comes as no surprise that Ask.com has been incorporating a Q&A database into its search offering. Today at SemTech, a semantic search conference, Ask.com will announce the milestone of achieving 300 million question and answer pairs in the database. The database was developed with proprietary search semantic technology and aims to serve up the best answer results.

If you've ever used an Answers site, you know that searching on them can be tedious. There are redundancies and spam and bad information.

Ask.com's technology aims to reduce the redundancies and cull through the information to provide the best answers to their searchers.

To access the database, go to Ask.com and click on the "lots of answers" phrase above the search box. Enter your question and then click the blue "Search" button.

Or - if you've already searched your question in the regular results, look for the tabs under the search box in the top left corner and select "Q&A Beta."

What do you think of Ask.com's approach to delivering answers in search? Give us your answer in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 3, 2009

New Dictionary.com Ad Offering Combines Keywords with Display Ads, Plus Homepage Takeover

If you go to Dictionary.com today or tomorrow, you'll notice a homepage takeover ad by Toyota featuring their hybrid Prius vehicle. It's part of a 2-day ad blitz campaign Toyota is conducting on the popular word lookup site, which sees 35 million visitors per month.

You'll also see display ads when you look up one of 100 words that Toyota chose to associate with the Prius. It's a new offering that Dictionary.com is offering brands and it has the potential to be quite a significant one.

This type of ad campaign takes keywords from the realm of ROI to branding. That may seem backwards, but there are a few things to consider.

Let's say a visitor to Dictionary.com searches for "hybrid." They're already searching and the ad they see is relevant. Other sites where you might see display ads (i.e.newspaper sites), visitors are consuming but not necessarily searching.

We also know that display ads drive people to search. So while the ROI may not always be as impressive with display alone (compared to search), combining display and search is significantly more powerful than search or display alone.

Also, when people are learning a new word, they may associate it with the brand that's being advertised on the page. This is genius if you're Toyota and you want consumers to associate the word hybrid with their Prius. You can imagine how many brands will want to be visible to associate their product with the initial learning of a word.

Some of the keywords Toyota chose are obvious such as hybrid, environment, or sustainability. Other words evoke a feeling that Toyota wants to associate with the Prius including happiness, comfort and style.

The homepage takeover part of the campaign is a first for Dictionary.com. Of course, Dictionary.com was acquired last year by Ask.com, which recently ran a homepage takeover featuring the Night at the Museum sequel. Ask.com says the campaign was "extremely successful" so it's no surprise to see Dictionary.com trying it out, too.

What do you think of this ad blitz? Is it something your brand would be interested in trying? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 22, 2009

Ask.com Comments on 'Night at the Museum' Promo

Yesterday, we brought you news that Ask.com was skinning its page with a large promotional campaign for the 'Night at the Museum' sequel (in theaters this weekend.) Later, I was contacted by Ask.com spokesman Nicholas Graham, who clarified some key points.

The Night at the Museum skin is not an ad per se, but rather a promotional exchange. Ask.com is being featured in the film, and, in exchange, Night at the Museum is being featured on Ask.com.

This isn't the first time that Ask.com has done this. Last fall, Ask.com had a promo where searchers could choose a homepage skin featuring the James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Ask.com has presented similar promotions for charities, as well.

A natural question is: Do people want these graphical experiences, or do they prefer the minimalistic white space of Google? But Graham says people do like it and choose to have skins on their page when given the option.

He referenced a weeklong NASCAR campaign, where, after the campaign was over, users were given the option to keep the skin. Many did.

"We know that allowing users to see and experience something other than a 'usual' homepage excites and captivates them, which is why our 'skins' feature is so popular and desired," said Graham. "It also creates strong 'lifetime value' in users, which is such a critical part of brand presence and growing our share of market. And also adds to positive trends in frequency and retention."

What better way to attract lifetime users than by grabbing their attention at a young age. Let's face it, the results on search engines are not so drastically different that Google should be dominating the search market the way it does. If Ask.com wants to steal some market share away, they need to go after younger demographics, to help them form the habit of searching with them instead. (They'll also need to grow up with them and meet their changing search needs and preferences as they mature.)

Ask.com is smart to take actions based on what they have seen build loyalty and also to appeal to younger searchers. The web is an ever-changing world and Ask.com is clearly not out to maintain the status quo.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 21, 2009

Ask.com Adopts Live Search's Hot Spot Photos, With Ad Twist

Last year, Microsoft's Live Search began adding large images to the homepage with various "hotspots" that, when clicked on, directed visitors to various searches. Now, Ask.com seems to be taking that approach, with a twist.

An advertising twist.

Today, at Ask.com is a large promotional image of the upcoming film, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. If you mouseover each character or actor, a name will pop up and you can click on it and be taken to a search.

For example, mouse over Amy Adams and her character "Amelia Earhart" will pop up. Click on it and be taken to the Ask.com results for "Amelia Earhart."

Ben Stiller is the star of the movie but his character is a fictional security guard. So, his pop up shows his character's name, "Larry Daley" but the search is for "Ben Stiller" instead.

One weird thing is that a couple of the names actually pop up out of the image frame. For such an advertising effort, that should be unacceptable.

Of course, cynics will criticize this move by Ask.com, deeming it cheesy or desperate. But it really isn't all that different from ads seen on non-search engines. Additionally, it's very similar to more traditional ad methods such as billboards (hello, Times Square!) or large ads in newspapers. We only have to look at the criticized yet successful Cashback program, again by Microsoft's Live Search, to know that the cynics aren't always right.

Instead, I think Ask.com might be on to something here. I often see Ask.com advertising on cable television's Discovery Channel, for example. It would be smart of them to engage in some sort of ad exchange where people driven to search Ask via a cable ad are then greeted with this new type of imaging featuring Discovery channel shows.

Search is overdue for some true innovation in advertising and it's good to see Ask (and Microsoft) attempting it.

That's my take. What's yours? Comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 29, 2009

IAC Acquires Restaurant Recommendation Guide Urbanspoon

IAC, parent company of Ask.com, has acquired Urbanspoon. The restaurant recommendation is a website as well as one of the more popular iPhone apps. Urbanspoon will remain an independent brand, but its content will be integrated with other IAC properties such as Citysearch and InsiderPages.

"With a dedicated and comprehensive focus on restaurants, Urbanspoon is a pioneer in the online and mobile space with a truly unique, innovative and consumer-friendly product," said Jay Herratti, CEO of Citysearch. "Aggregating content from across the web and blending it with distinctive features including a polling system to rank restaurants, Urbanspoon is expanding the realm of what's possible for consumers when it comes to finding local content on the web."

You may remember Urbanspoon from some of the earlier iPhone commercials demonstrating apps once the App Store was open. It looks like a slot machine, except you get to choose which items you want (though you can shake for a random recommendation.)

"With millions of downloads of their iPhone app, Urbanspoon has demonstrated that they can successfully distill mash-up web content and deliver it through mobile for foodies and local restaurant seekers alike," said Dinesh Moorjani, SVP of Mobile for IAC.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 20, 2009

Jeeves Makes a Comeback in the UK

Ask.com is bringing back Jeeves, the friendly butler mascot that started it all off in 1997. Not only is the icon back, but Ask is returning to its brand Ask Jeeves in the UK as well.

Jeeves also got a makeover:

Remember the old Jeeves?

"We know from increased retention levels, that our users prefer the improved site. And, in times like these we know our users are looking for answers for practical everyday needs like saving money and how to feed a family on a budget," Cesar Mascaraque, managing director of Ask Jeeves Europe. "We also know from research that they love Jeeves and strongly associate him with providing answers. Jeeves brings warmth and humanity to the search experience, and thanks to the enhancements we have made to our site, he is even better at providing answers than ever before so bringing him back is a perfect fit."

Ask.com originally retired Jeeves in February 2006.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 9, 2009

Ask.com Taps Anchor Intelligence for Click Fraud Reduction

Ask.com has selected Anchor Intelligence to assist in reducing click fraud. Anchor Intelligence says it uses network security intelligence to identify fraud. Such methods include spam traps, honeypots, and stealth servers.

"Superior quality, optimal performance, and enhanced security are fundamental to the Ask.com brand and search experience," said Mark Stockford, CIO, Ask.com. "Through our partnership with Anchor Intelligence, Ask.com can further apply these fundamental priorities to the experience of our advertising customers. This move demonstrates Ask.com's commitment to providing advertisers across the marketplace with the most valuable, impactful, and reliable advertising traffic available online."

Anchor Intelligence's real-time traffic scoring system, ClearMark, classifies traffic according to quality, which they say enables ad networks and search engines to provide the maximum value for each click.

"Investing in third-party solutions like ClearMark is a necessary next step for search engines and ad networks looking to retain and grow advertising spend during a time when advertisers are demanding better performance," said Ken Miller, CEO of Anchor Intelligence. "Marketers need to show high returns on their advertising investments, and ClearMark gives search engines the insights needed to make that happen. By selecting Anchor Intelligence, Ask.com has taken that groundbreaking next step to protect its advertisers and their investments online."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 23, 2009

Ask.com Implements Canonical URL Tag

A couple of weeks ago, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced their support for a new tag that helps sites with duplicate content issues. The tag helps web developers show which URL the search engines should prioritize.

Now, Ask.com is getting in on the new tag action.

If you're not familiar with the tag, here's an example, provided by Ask.com:

Basically, you'll want to place the tag on all the dup pages to point it to the original content.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 1, 2008

Yahoo and Ask.com Reveal Top Searches for 2008

Top searches lists are beginning to roll out and today, both Yahoo and Ask.com revealed the hottest searches for 2008 on their respective engines.

Over at Yahoo!, entertainment was the name of the game:

Britney Spears
WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)
Barack Obama
Miley Cyrus
RuneScape
Jessica Alba
Naruto
Lindsay Lohan
Angelina Jolie
American Idol

Ask.com's Top 10 list was a little less shallow

Dictionary
MySpace
Google
YouTube
Facebook
Coupons
Cars
Craigslist
Online degrees
Credit score

To drill down into specific niches such as politics and news, check out the breakdown of top searches for Yahoo here and Ask.com here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 6, 2008

Meet the New Ask.com (Again)

After a year of slow but steady growth, Ask.com has redesigned, incorporating Google, Yahoo and Microsoft design elements along with it. Changing things up has helped Ask in the past, so we'll have to keep an eye on whether this gives Ask.com a nice little boost.

The first noticeable change is the front page. It's minimalist in nature, but you can change the skin to create a different background.

In the results, the dualing sidebars are gone, and only one on the right remains. The organic results are flush with the left, similar to Google and Yahoo. And there are related searches similar to what you'll find on Microsoft.

An interesting feature is the AskEraser. It addresses privacy concerns that people have about search.

What do you think of the changes? Give us your first impressions in the comments.

h/t Rafe Needleman @ CNET

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 27, 2008

Ask Relaunches AskKids.com with Updated Design, Cool Drawing Feature

As a new homeschooling parent, finding online learning resources that are safe, well-designed, and fun for my kids is important - but inexplicably difficult. That's why I was thrilled to learn about Ask.com's expansion and redesign of AskKids.com.

I've already found Ask.com itself to be a great search engine for my kids, with its suggested searches and images in the sidebars.

But AskKids.com gives me even more confidence. Plus, there's a SUPER FUN feature on the front page.

At the bottom right corner, there's a box with a pen, pencil and highlighter. You can grab one of the utensils with your mouse and draw directly on the page! It rocks. There's also a tab for "stickers" that you can put on your drawing.

Moving on to the search side of things, on the front page, in addition to the traditional search box, there are 5 categories kids can go directly to: Schoolhouse, Movies, Games, Video, and Images.

Clicking on one of the categories brings up even more options along with traditional search results.

Conducting a traditional search was much like doing so on Ask.com There's only one sidebar, on the left, and no images.

I do have two criticisms: 1. The design theme is built around a traditional school setting. Kids are so much more than school. The background design of notebook paper is not a great way to reach kids, who learn much better through visual and interactive approahches and are far more tech-savvy than traditional, old school (pun fully intended) educational methods.

2. The search results have ads taking up a good portion of the space. The same criticism can be made of the Ask.com page. Being user-friendly and not ad friendly almost always wins the day and it would be nice if Ask could figure out a more user-friendly way to make the moolah.

Still, the homepage design is at least better than the old version:

What do you think of the new AskKids.com? Leave us your impressions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 21, 2008

IAC Completes Spinoff of Four Companies

IAC, the parent company of Ask.com, has completed the spinoff of four companies: HSN, Inc. (HSNi), Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (ILG), Ticketmaster and Tree.com. For every one share of IAC common stock held on August 11, 2008, the record date for the spin-off, or bought in the due bill period, holders received one-fifth of a share of common stock of each of HSNi, ILG and Ticketmaster, and one-thirtieth of a share of common stock of Tree.com. Immediately following the spin-off on August 20, 2008, IAC also effected a one-for-two reverse stock split.

Here are the new symbols for the companies being traded on the NASDAQ:

HSNi - HSNI
ILG - IILG
Ticketmaster - TKTM
Tree.com - TREE

Shares of IAC common stock will trade under the symbol "IACID" until September 19, 2008 in compliance with NASDAQ rules. Afterwards, IAC will trade again under its current symbol, IACI.

"Armed with outstanding management teams, appropriate capital structures and their own currencies, HSNi, Ticketmaster, Interval and Tree.com are now ready for independent futures ... while the Internet businesses that make up new IAC can operate with a collective purpose and common goals," said Barry Diller, Chairman and CEO of IAC. "The work is done and our focus now is moving forward."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

IAC Split Will Occur August 21; 'When-Issued' Trading Begins Tomorrow

Ask.com parent company IAC announced last November that they would spin off four of their properties and become 5 separate companies. The other four companies will be HSN, Inc., Interval Leisure Group, Inc., Ticketmaster and Tree.com, Inc.

Now, Reuters is reporting the split will occur on August 21.

Meanwhile, the NASDAQ has advised IAC that 'when-issued' trading will begin for the five companies tomorrow at the opening bell. NASDAQ defines 'when-issued' trading as this:

"A trade is done on a "when-issued" basis because there are no physical certificates available evidencing the securities being traded, therefore a delivery date cannot be determined at the time of execution." IAC recently posted a 7% growth for the second quarter of 2008.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 30, 2008

Ask.com and IAC Beat the Street:: 2Q 2008 Earnigs

Some skeptics have publicly predicted the death of Ask.com. With IAC planning to spin off its properties into four units, that's a bold prediction indeed.

For the divisions that will become the new IAC, including Internet services such as Ask.com and Match.com, revenue rose 11% as earnings improved 3%.

The Ask-Google partnership is already paying dividends. More people are using Ask more often.

Here's how the IAC Search business breaks out:

Media & Advertising consists of proprietary properties such as Ask.com, Fun Web Products, Citysearch and Evite and network properties which include distributed search, sponsored listings, and toolbars.

Proprietary revenue grew strongly during the quarter and now represents 75% of total Media & Advertising revenue.

Media & Advertising revenue growth was driven by improved economics associated with the renewed partnership with Google, which resulted in an increase in revenue per query across all proprietary search sites.

Revenue per query at Ask.com grew, even excluding the benefits of the renewed contract.

Ask.com continued to grow its core user base which searches most frequently, while queries declined overall due largely to significantly reduced marketing.

Media & Advertising profit benefited from lower marketing spend at Ask.com and higher margin traffic resulting from the ongoing shift in query mix towards proprietary and away from the partner network.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ask.com Parent Co. IAC Posts 7% Growth for Q2 2008

IAC, the parent company of top-5 search engine Ask.com, has posted a 7% year-over-year growth in revenue for the second quarter of 2008.

IAC is preparing for a transition, spinning off various assets into different companies.

"We are now right around the corner from the separation of IAC into five separate companies and the dissolution of the complexity surrounding the combined structure," said IAC's Chairman and CEO, Barry Diller. "Besides the detailed numbers contained throughout this release, focusing on consolidated results is only about the past, and I would think it far more productive for the future to analyze and judge the entities on their own merits ... as a large shareholder in each that is certainly what I intend to do."

Earlier this year, Ask.com changed up their management and cut 8% of their workforce. IAC also announced a bunch of new niche sites that serve up a mix of search and social media.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 5, 2008

Ask Should Have Asked Jeeves How To Spell Cinco De Mayo

The BOTW boys were quick to find and post the mistake Ask made on their homepage. Guess Jeeves was the strong speller in that crew!

Is the staff that annoyed by the break up that they don't care anymore? Or did Barry Diller give that part to one of his preteen grandkids to edit?

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:38 PM | Permalink

April 10, 2008

IAC to Launch a Flurry of Niche Sites

IAC, parent company of Ask.com, is planning to launch several new niche sites that incorporate search and social media. First up is RushmoreDrive.com, which has already launched and is targeted at the African-American community.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Green.com will be developed into a virtual world for children and "tweens" that will focus on environmental issues and encouraging good deeds. FiLife, currently a personal finance blog, will revamped as part of a partnership with News Corp.'s Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Wall Street Journal.

Past IAC sites have been hit or miss. Pronto.com saw 9.1 million visitors in February 2008, up from 816,000 in February 2007. But comedy news site 23/6 saw numbers drop month-over-month from January to February 2008, with 52,000 and 36,000 respectively according to comScore. IAC disputed the numbers, claiming the site saw 685,000 visitors in March.

Meanwhile, Ask.com recently announced cuts to its workforce, eliminating 40 workers, which amounts to 40% of total employees.

Launching new sites isn't the only change IAC is seeing. Recently, a Delaware court granted permission to pursue a breakup of the company, which will spin off 4 of its largest businesses into public companies.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:08 AM | Permalink

February 29, 2008

Would Ask be Ask?

If Ask dismantled its Teoma engine, would Ask still be Ask? The simple answer to this existential question is no.

The Ask search is based on the concept of expert opinion, and there are many refinement options shown in the interface based on clustered or categorized results.

So if Teoma were shut down, we think the ability to narrow or expand searches would likely disappear -- as shown in the chocolate options here.

On the other hand, it's possible to port these algorithms elsewhere if there's enough time for Ask engineers to prepare transitions. That means these search refinements could be layered on top of a different engine, albeit slowing down the response time.

According to PaidContent, the ad deal between Google and Ask includes "a clause allowing Google to engage more deeply with Ask's algorithmic search." If the algorithms from Joisey were connected inside of Google, then these functionalities live on.

Not sure what's planned here, but we can't take the user-interface for granted with a simple plug-in.

Posted by at 3:32 PM | Permalink

January 3, 2008

Ask and LookSmart Send Out Click Fraud Settlement Letters

Seems Lane's Gifts are not the only ones getting money back from LookSmart and Ask for click fraud, letters were sent out yesterday for the class action suit that both companies are trying to put behind them.

Both seem to be written by the same law firm and were from the suit lodged in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. LookSmart is dealing with the period between January 1, 2002 and the present; while Ask is covering claims beginning August 1, 2005, when it began licensing LookSmart's technology for its Ask Sponsored Listings product.

Claims must be filed to LookSmart by February 11, 2008 and to Ask by February 2, 2008.

Payment seems to be in advertising credits as opposed to cash. Guess if you have gotten out of the online business you could sell the credits.

Copies of the two letters are below.

LookSmart's letter read:

"If you purchased online advertising from LookSmart between January 1, 2002 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. LookSmart, Ltd. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court's certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.

- The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from LookSmart on or after January 1, 2002.

- The proposed settlement will resolve claims that LookSmart breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.

- If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at LooksmartSettlement.com

To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: LooksmartSettlement.com/claim

Note: You should review the Settlement Notice as soon as possible as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with this proposed settlement. As indicated above, your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is January 29, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 11, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice." The Ask letter reads:

"If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively "Ask") between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.

You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.

The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court's certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.

The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. on or after August 1, 2005.

The proposed settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.

If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at www.AskSettlement.com.

To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: AskSettlement.com/claim. Each advertiser will be allowed one claim per account."

Posted by Frank Watson at 11:19 AM | Permalink

November 5, 2007

IAC Splitting Into Five Separate Companies

Ask.com parent InterActiveCorp is splitting itself up. After years of touting the importance of "synergy" between its partner companies, IAC Chairman and CEO Barry Diller has gotten permission from the board of directors to split the business five ways.

IAC has acquired several companies in the last few years, and Diller explains that things are getting too complicated to explain to investors: "We've been a complex enterprise almost from the very beginning 12 years ago, with hundreds of transactions over those years. And while we've created a lot of value, I've always believed our complexity and many mouthfuls of sentences to explain who we are and what our strategy is have hampered clarity and understanding with all our constituencies, particularly investors,” Diller said.

IAC will divide its businesses among the five sectors it is involved in:

IAC, which will include:
- The businesses currently comprising its Media & Advertising sector: Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, CursorMania, IAC Advertising Solutions, Evite, Excite, InsiderPages, iWon, My Fun Cards, My Way, Popular Screensavers, Smiley Central, Webfetti and Zwinky
- Match.com, ServiceMagic, Shoebuy.com, Entertainment Publications and ReserveAmerica
- The businesses currently comprising its Emerging Businesses sector: Black Web Enterprises, BustedTees, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, Gifts.com, Green.com, InstantAction, Primal Ventures, Pronto, Very Short List, Vimeo and 23/6
- IAC's current investments in Active.com, Brightcove, FiLife, Medem, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, Points.com and SHOP Channel.
HSN, which will include the primary businesses currently comprising IAC's Retailing segment, including HSN TV, hsn.com, and the Cornerstone Brands, Inc. portfolio of catalogs, web sites and retail locations, including Alsto's, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, GrandinRoad, Improvements, Isabella Bird, Smith+Noble, The Territory Ahead and TravelSmith
Ticketmaster, which will include its domestic and international operations including Admission.com, Biletix, Billetnet, BillettService, Cottonblend, Echomusic, Kartenhaus.de, Lippupalvelu, LiveDaily, TicketService, Tick Tack Ticket, TicketWeb and Ticnet.se, as well as Ticketmaster's current investments in Frontline and iLike
Interval International, which will also include CondoDirect, Resort Quest Hawaii and VacationSource.com
LendingTree, which will also include RealEstate.com, Domania, GetSmart, Home Loan Center and iNest.

IAC already spun off Expedia two years ago.

IAC will retain substantially all of the company's cash and Diller will continue as its chairman and CEO of IAC.

ClickZ News has coverage of Diller's comments during a press conference call.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:54 AM | Permalink

July 23, 2007

Ask Adds AskEraser To Maintain User Privacy, Microsoft Joins Them To Evolve Privacy Procedures

Want to make sure your search history is not being recorded? Ask.com has developed AskEraser a tool that will allow you to wipe your search history and will be launching it in the near future, according to their press release.

"Searchers will have easy access to AskEraser and can change their privacy preference at any time. Once selected, searchers' privacy settings will be clearly indicated on search results pages so they always know the privacy status of their searches," the press release stated.

"As search and other online services progress, it's important for our customers to be able to trust that their information is being used appropriately and in a way that provides value to them," said Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist at Microsoft. "We hope others in the industry will join us in developing and supporting principles that address these important issues. People should be able to search and surf online without having to navigate a complicated patchwork of privacy policies."

"AskEraser is a great solution for those looking for an additional level of privacy when they search online," said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. "Anonymous user data can be very useful to enhance search products for all users, and we're committed to being open and transparent about how such information is used. But we also understand that there are some who are interested in new tools that will help protect their privacy further, and we will give them that control on Ask.com."

"Anonymous user data can be very useful to enhance search products for all users, but people should have access to privacy controls based on their level of comfort around the storage of their search data," said Doug Leeds, vice president of product management at Ask.com. "We're committed to developing new ways to give consumers the control they are entitled to when it comes to searching online, and hope others will join us in engaging in dialogue on these important issues."

Microsoft and Ask.com are proposing that leading search providers, online advertising companies and privacy advocates convene to engage in an active dialogue to discuss privacy considerations posed by the proliferation of online advertising and search. The goal of the dialogue is to determine ways that the industry can work cooperatively to define privacy principles that take these new considerations into account. The companies will provide an update on their progress in September.

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:47 PM | Permalink

April 24, 2007

Ad Age Digital Fact Pack full of news nuggets

Abbey Klaassen of Advertising Age reports that Ad Age's Digital Fact Pack is available to download for free. Among the highlights in the second annual Digital Fact Pack are these gems:

-- The top 10 online properties took in 99% of 2006 gross online ad revenue. Or, as Klaassen puts it, "the Long Tail of the web has a big, fat head."

-- MySpace and Facebook continue to defy gravity, growing 72.5% and 59.2% (Feb. '07 vs. Feb. '06), respectively.

-- The top US Search engines are Google (51.83%), Yahoo Search (15.94%), MSN Search (9.13%), Google Image Search (6.02%), and Ask.com (2.15%), according to Hitwise. That's right, Google Image Search has a higher market share than Ask.com!

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:42 AM | Permalink

IAC Launches Its Own Incubator

IAC/InterActiveCorp, parent to Ask.com and Citysearch, among others, has launched an internal incubator project to find and develop business opportunities for IAC. The as-yet-unnamed unit will be based in San Francisco, and led by Match.com CEO Jim Safka. IAC will replace Safka at Match.com with Thomas Enraght-Moony, who had been Match.com's COO.

Yahoo recently took a similar tack when it launched "Brickhouse" late last year. That unit is led by Flickr founder Caterina Fake and serial entrepreneur Salim Ismail.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:35 AM | Permalink

December 18, 2006

Searches Up, Dude! Ask.com Sponsors Surf Contest

Search and surfing will converge in Half Moon Bay, California in early 2007, when the Mavericks Surf Contest takes place. Known to surf pros and fans of the sport as the world's premiere big-wave surf event, this season's contest offers everyone the chance to surf Ask.com for all the details and get a variety of results from various Ask sources, including maps and directions online or via Ask.com Mobile search.

"Ask.com® is excited to be an integral part of the preeminent big-wave surfing event, and, as a leading search engine, to be the official go-to source for information for all things Mavericks," said Greg Ott, vice president of marketing. A quick search for Mavericks Surf Contest on Ask.com® will give fans quick access to webcasts and viewing locations, videos, bios on the surfers and the history of the event. In addition, with Ask.com® and Ask.com Mobile(tm), fans can find Mavericks images, news, maps, walking and driving directions, blogs and other information across the Web for fans everywhere. "We're excited to support this great surfing event, as well as to be a resource for all the Mavericks fans," remarked Ott.

On just 24 hours notice between January 1 and March 31, 2007, 24 legendary big-wave surfers will make the pilgrimage to the treacherous Mavericks surf break to compete for the famed title, and $75,000 in prizes to be distributed to the top surfers.

Surfers and fans alike can track the waves and stay informed on contest announcements at the official website maverickssurf.com.

Note: You would think that I got this info directly from Ask.com, since I receive a lot of press releases from the search engines, but no -- this one actually came from an PR company who has me on their list as an action sports journalist. So I just had to post since it was related to my two favorite things: search and outdoor sports.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 5:42 PM | Permalink

2006 Top Searches

Following Yahoo's release on December 4 of its top searches for 2006, last week AOL, Lycos and MSN Live released their top searches for the year 2006. Google still has their 2005 review at Zeitgeist, along with recent monthly totals. Ask.com presents weekly lists, but has yet to release a 2006 year in review.

A closer look at these lists reveals some interesting questions about the differences in the data from engine to engine.

Looking at the slight differences between this data can be an interesting project, and can probably yield some good insight into both the user demographics of each of the engines

Paris Hilton is an interesting example to use in showing how search engines classify types of searches. In Yahoo! and in AOL, Paris is listed as a celebrity, yet she is found in top News searches for MSN Live. Does this mean that people search Live's (formerly search.msn.com) News category when they look for everyone's favorite socialite?

More can undoubtedly be read into the top overall searches reported for each portal. AOL reports: "weather" (does this mean they included all weather-inclusive searches or just the term "weather?"); Yahoo! says Britney Spears is number one (hmm...wonder if that includes people misspelling it?); MSN Live claims that the world wanted to know about Ronaldinho more than anyone or thing else; and Lycos puts Poker at number one. Again, others can fill in the blanks as to what they think the demographics most closely associated with each portal are.

It will be interesting to see what the top Google searches are. It would also be nice to have some more details as to how many misspellings were included in searches and perhaps how many of the searches for each top term were actually contained in a longer keyword phrase.

See also the discussions about this at the Yahoo! Search Blog, and the MSN Blog post that introduced their list. AOL has opened up the floor for discussion at the AOL Search Blog (thanks Susan for the link!). Lycos provides a platform for discussion which can be found at the Lycos 50 Blog. (Thanks Carolyn!)

(Note this story was edited after I discovered that Paris Hilton did make the top celebrity list at AOL. For some reason I missed that originally. Apologies to the AOL team for this oversight. CB)

Posted by Chris Boggs at 10:58 AM | Permalink

November 15, 2006

Ask.com, Google, & Yahoo Fight Raising SEC Fees

The Washington Post reports that the SEC wants to charge new fees for accessing and displaying real-time stock quotes. IAC (Ask.com), Google, Yahoo and others in a coalition are fighting back. "The coalition in particular is looking for the SEC to reverse a staff decision allowing the New York Stock Exchange to increase the fees for displaying information from its Archipelago electronic market, some of which had been free. In authorizing the new charges last month, the commission ruled they were legitimate because they were not out of line with those already imposed by the Nasdaq for similar data."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:44 AM | Permalink

October 19, 2006

Searching Via Internet Explorer 7 & The Battle To Be The Default Search Engine

Now that Internet Explorer 7 has been released in final format, I wanted to look at how search is being handled within the browser. There's been lots of discussion and worries about this in the past. Speculation time is over; reality is here. In this article, how the IE7 search box works, how you can change it and how Google and Yahoo's toolbars behave within it to try and maintain their default status, once gained.

The biggest difference with Internet Explorer 7 is the one that's been most discussed, a visible search box built into the "chrome." In the picture below, you can see the search box, complete with the word "Google" in light text to remind me what search engine is my default.

(NOTE: I've used a lot of screenshots, drawing off my Flickr account and picked a day when Flickr has became sluggish after I wrote this. Apologies if the pictures don't show when you view the page. Try reloading or checking back).

Google is my default search engine because it was that way in Internet Explorer 6. It became my default there with my permission, when I installed the Google Toolbar on my laptop (where I did today's testing) ages ago.

I removed the Google Toolbar for the purposes of testing IE7. That didn't cause the IE6 default settings to change, and to Microsoft's credit, they didn't try to override it when I upgraded to IE7.

Microsoft had previously said that if it detected a particular search engine was set to be a default, it would respect that. So, IE7 did -- sort of. Notice however what comes up in the main window of Internet Explorer 7 when I relaunched it:

Here, I'm notified that Google's my default, and I'm asked to confirm this or make another choice. Overall, I think that's fine. Yes, it's Microsoft hoping to change some minds. Maybe "Keep my current default search provider" should be ticked already. But I'd say most people who have Google as their default now will confirm keeping it that way. It's hardly anti-competitive.

Google, in particular, has disagreed. On a new machine, where Google has no presence or partnership, Microsoft Live Search will be the default. Google had suggested that users should be explicitly asked to make a choice from one of several providers. In my past article about this, I wrote about not being sympathetic to that idea, given that Google has had no problem paying to override consumer choice to gain the default position through deals with Firefox or through Dell installations.

Since then, deals have only accelerated. Yahoo partnered with Acer and also with HP. Google cut a deal with Adobe. It's difficult to know how a consumer is going to buy a "virgin" machine where the defaults haven't already been decided or influenced by some business deal.

Given this, let's focus on how consumers can make their choices after the fact. That's pretty easy. From that opening screen that IE gives after installation, tick the "Let me select from a list of other search providers" option and then choose Save Settings at the bottom of the page.

That will brings up this page (other pages might come up for other language/country configurations):

Very fairly, Microsoft isn't positioning themselves at the top of the list or more prominently than others. In fact, I think Microsoft is making a terrible mistake by just saying "Live Search" rather than "Microsoft Live Search." I think relatively few people know the Live brand right now. I can well imagine some people thinking, "Live Search -- what's that?" and skipping the search engine from consideration.

I selected Live Search from the list. That made a pop-up box appear:

Notice the option to make the choice as my default is NOT ticked. This allows you to add several search engines to the search box, which you can then selectively use while still maintaining your default search engine. You can add a bunch of different providers, and I'll come back to this more below.

It's worth noting that the Search Provider page links to information about the OpenSearch system, a way for anyone to easily create search engines that can be added to IE7. Of course, that doesn't mean you get added to the all-important Search Provider page. It just means someone visiting your site might be able to use a button that you promote to them to change their IE7 settings.

That Search Provider page also has an interesting box allowing you to visit any search engine, then do a copy-and-paste action to make your own search box. It's very clever. You simply search for TEST on anything that gives you a search box. Copy-and-paste the resulting URL, and IE7 will automatically create the right way to access that search engine for you. I added Search Engine Watch as a search engine to my IE7 installation easily by doing this.

In the example above, I didn't change my default search provider. Now let's say I want to, perhaps some time after I've initially installed IE7. Google has previous spun the idea of changing settings in IE7 as some complicated task. It even cited research saying only one third of users could figure it out. I have more faith that people can do it, so let's go through the steps.

Click the Tools button in IE7's menu, then pick Internet Options
On the General tab of the Internet Options window that appears, there's a Search area. Click on the Settings button here.
That brings up a Change Search Defaults menu: (FYI, I wish the "Find more providers" link was much more visible here. If you didn't pick more providers from when IE was initially installed, you won't have any choices in the main selection area -- and you might miss that link. This is handled in a better way through an alternative method I'll cover below).
Choose the search engine you want, push the Set Default button, then OK. Now you're done.

Well, not necessarily. After I did this, Google was shown as my choice within the search box in the chrome. Evil Google! No, it seems more an IE thing. When I closed and restarted IE7, the default was changed to Live Search.

Let's go back to that search box in the chrome. Obviously, you can use it to search. Enter some words, hit return or click the magnifying glass icon/button, and the browser will pull back results from your default search engine.

The box also allows you to temporarily or permanently change your default search provider. Next to the box, use the down-arrow to get a drop-down menu like this:

From it, any search engine you've added to your providers list is shown. You can see how several providers I've selected are added, including the custom choice I made for Search Engine Watch.

Choose a provider, and then your search will go to that provider for that particular search, similar to how the box in Firefox works. It stays this way until you change it back or until you close IE7 entirely.

Look at the bottom of the menu. The drop-down box lets you get to the IE7 search providers page or bring up the Change Search Defaults box I showed in step 3 above. That makes changing providers a two step process.

Next up, I wanted to see how the search engines competing with Microsoft were reacting to a freshly minted copy of IE7 showing up at their doorsteps. Would I get prompts to change, as we've seen in the past from both Google and Yahoo?

Google and Yahoo surprisingly did nothing. I wonder if this might because the final release of IE7 has made some type of browser agent change that the two have set to identify. We'll see. Meanwhile, Ask gave me this box enticing me to change:

Next up, time to deal with concerns that Google might be too aggressive in protecting itself once installed as the default via the Google Toolbar. I loaded up a fresh copy. In short order, Google asked me if I wanted to make it both my default search provider and notify me if something tries to change that:

To help avoid controversy, Google ought to make these separate options. But from a usability perspective, I can well understand the logic of making then a single choice. If I want Google to be my default, I probably don't want something to try and change that behind my back -- and many have had bad experiences with adware and spyware doing exactly that.

I told it Google fine, then I was surprised that the next screen made me decide whether to have PageRank display enabled or not.

In the past, I recall this as an option you were never prompted to enable. Instead, I recall it as something that search engine optimization folks (about the only ones who care) would enable by diving into the advanced options and switching it on.

I could be wrong in my recollection. If so, my apologies. But even with Google's clear "in your face" warning that enabling PageRank will send data to them, I still wonder if perhaps the screen should be different.

Maybe PageRank display should be disabled by default, rather than making you choose. The screen that appears would then ask explicitly if you wanted to change to enabled. It would explain what it provides to the user (the screen itself tells you nothing, not even a short description such as here). It would then warn, as it does now, that enabling the feature allows Google to see every page you are visiting.

All installed, Google gives me a big notice to let me know I'm ready to go with the toolbar:

I then tried to change search providers using the steps above. That seemed to work, but then I got this small notification in my task bar, along with an audible signal:

My task bar is at the top of the screen (where it belongs, in my opinion!). By default, the task bar is at the bottom of Windows machines by default, so the notification could be less noticeable there. The sound helps, but frankly I don't know why this was blocked at all.

There's a big difference between spyware changing your default setting and users themselves trying to change the default using the options within Internet Explorer. Google ought to be able to distinguish the two. Changes made by a user shouldn't be blocked. Moreover, any blocking ought to ask me for confirmation that it's going to happen, not just be done on my behalf.

In other words, consider this. I'd consented for Google to notify me if something was trying to change my default settings, as shown on that earlier screenshot. I did not consent to it doing the blocking on my behalf, which is what it did. It would have been far better if Google had produced some type of pop-up box telling me that something wanted to change my defaults and asking me if I wanted to allow this. Leave the choice with me.

I'll follow-up with Google about this. Meanwhile, what to do if you want to override the decision Google made for you? When that notification happens, you have to click on the little G button in your task bar (if the notification is gone, try changing again to make it come back). Clicking on the G brings up a box like this:

That box is what I think Google should actually show you, rather than processing it behind the scenes unless you manually make it appear. It tells you something wants to change your default, asks if you want to allow that to happen and lets you override what Google wants to do, remain the default, if that's your decision.

If you override, that should disable Google from doing any future monitoring, as it tells you will be the case:

That's what I found to happen. In fact, I see no signs that Google is still monitoring despite being told not to. That's what happened in July, when the GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe program continued to run. Google said this was a bug, which got some dubious laughs in some quarters. Bug or not, I certainly don't see it happening now.

To further test it, I went back to Ask.com and let it make it my default search provider. That worked fine.

Once you've disabled monitoring, what if you want it back? Use the Settings menu of the Google Toolbar, then on the More tab, you'll see two options:

The two different options intrigued me. What was the difference between:

Set and keep Search settings to Google
- Notify me on settings change

I enabled only the first. Bad, bad choice. If you do this, you simply cannot change your settings at all unless you go back into the Google Toolbar and override the option. Google will silently keep any settings from being altered. If you enable them both, then you get back to the behavior where at least Google will give you a notification.

Overall, here's what I'd like to see. The Google Toolbar should ask if you want to be notified about changes. If something tries to make a change, it should then ask you for explicit permission whether to override this, at least the first time -- perhaps it gives you an option to let Google handle these changes without notifications behind the scenes after that. But yes -- get in the users face more about what you're going to change initially, so they know what's going on.

Having played with Google, I next loaded up the Yahoo Toolbar. Ugh, not fun. First, Yahoo by default wants to cram Norton Spyware scan down your throat. Yes, right under the big Download Yahoo! Toolbar button in smaller text is an option to get just the toolbar without it. I'd rather see that option get equal play.

After the installation, like Google, Yahoo stands ready to be both my default search engine and help me get back to Yahoo if something changes my default settings:

Like Google, Yahoo makes it clear you've got the toolbar with this big pop-up window:

Decide to personalize the toolbar, as Yahoo suggests? To do that, you've got to have a Yahoo account. That means the toolbar does more than drive searches for Yahoo. Unlike Google, Yahoo's trying to generate user registrations, as well. The toolbar works without registration, of course -- but it no doubt encourages some people to sign up.

I manually changed my default provider from Yahoo to Google, using the steps above. Yahoo didn't block this. But when I closed the browser and relaunched it, I got this:

Fair enough. Unlike Google, Yahoo didn't silently switch itself back. It asked me to make that choice. It was also a one time thing. I told it to allow the change, then closed my browser and reopened it. Yahoo didn't come back and try to get me to switch back to Yahoo again.

Actually, I wouldn't have minded that. I find it very helpful that Firefox or Internet Explorer will keep asking me if I want them as a default unless I explicitly use the offered tick box not to be asked again. That's because it's easy to accidentally hit the wrong button. It's harder to both hit the wrong button and enable a tick box.

All this effort by the toolbars to maintain default status comes off the fear that the IE7 search box is going to somehow gain Microsoft tons of search traffic. I've been pessimistic about this actually happening. I've noted for ages that despite Microsoft long having hooks into IE for its own search, Google and Yahoo have both survived and thrived. My Google Worried About Microsoft's Browser Advantage? What Advantage? article goes into much more depth about this.

It's uncertain to me that the search box in the "chrome" is going to make that much of a difference, but I haven't seen much user behavior data here. I could be completely wrong, and Microsoft's competitors are certainly worried about it. We'll know in short order. IE7 is being rolled out in a mandatory fashion to Windows users beginning November 1 through the Windows update system. If Microsoft's search share rises, the chrome search box may be working.

However, I think many people will still fire up their browser and go back to the search engines they regularly use. Google and Yahoo might not have the enticements to switchover today up, but those will come. And I think those will help them to largely preserve their shares despite the IE7 rollout.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:16 AM | Permalink

October 5, 2006

Search Competition; Why Can't Others Catch Up To Google?

BusinessWeek.com has a good article on search competition, explaining how Google's continued growth amongst all the competition is practically unaffected. In short, the article goes over new features, refinements, and user interfaces and explains that it is mostly about the trust the searchers have for the Google brand to provide the best results. Take a look at Danny's recent rant, he goes into this more and also check out Danny's post on Daggle.com named Why Search Sucks & You Won't Fix It The Way You Think. Want a view from a Google employee on the article, read Matt Cutts take on it, where he kinda of knocks Ask.com's topic communities link analysis method, saying it is "hard to explain" to people.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:20 AM | Permalink

USA Today Asks Teoma Who?

The other day, Ask.com was featured in a USA Today article named What's Teoma, you ask? You could ask Jeeves, but he's become ... Teoma. Yes, a weird title for a USA Today post, in where USA Today goes into the past of Teoma, Ask Jeeves, Teoma, Rutgers, IBM and Apostolos Gerasoulis. The article is a fun read but it needs some clarifications that are either wrong or can be interpreted the wrong way. The article says, "Lanzone turned off Ask's technology and began to power Ask.com with Teoma." Lanzone, being Jim, the new CEO of Ask.com. The time they are referencing to turning off Ask.com is February 2005. That is actually not true, Teoma has been powering Ask for at least three years now. It did not happen when Ask.com changed their name from Ask Jeeves to Ask.com. Other than that, the article is short and enjoyable, so check it out.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:33 AM | Permalink

October 4, 2006

October 3, 2006

How Ask.com Rebranded and Increased Traffic

Ask.com took a big risk when it retired its iconic butler mascot and rebranded its site with a new look, features and tools. Before the change, the company did extensive research and testing with users to make sure that the transition went smoothly, and the work paid off with an increase in traffic. In today's SearchDay article, Rebranding Ask.com, guest writer Rae Hoffman interviews Ask.com's Senior User Experience Analyst Michael Ferguson for the inside story on how the company successfully re-engineered its web site.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 3:39 AM | Permalink

October 2, 2006

Why IAC's Pronto Will Succeed: Partnership With Ask

There are many reasons to like Pronto among the many crawler based shopping search engines:

- Comprehensiveness (read last week's press release) - Upcoming features that provide a better user experience - Monetization through an ad system not called Google AdSense - Not relying solely on the PPC engines for traffic - Online ad market is hot and will continue to grow - Ecommerce is hot and will continue to grow

While these things are the building blocks of a great new shopping service, they aren't the be all, end all. Other companies can and will develop powerful crawling technology (although Pronto is obviously proud of their own). There are other companies in the shopping space whose sole focus seems to be to provide a better user experience. Other companies will develop powerful ad systems (Kevin Ryan has done it before) or focus on high CPM based graphical advertising. Other companies have and will continue to focus on marketing channels besides the PPC engines. Oh, and everyone is benefiting from strong ad rates and ecommerce growth.

So you want the real reason why Pronto will succeed? The company is part of the IAC family. At some point in the next year, assuming Pronto continues to innovate and build on its solid foundation, the company will replace PriceGrabber as Ask's Smart Answer partner for all product searches. This was by no means confirmed with Pronto or Ask or IAC, but it's an obvious evolution.

And here's why it matters:

Ask.com currently has a 6% search marketshare with 6.5B searches being conducted in August (according to comScore). Assuming no growth in monthly searches ever (which isn't realistic), that means there are 390m searches conducted on Ask each month. I'd estimate that 20% or 78m of those searches are product related. Now if the Smart Answers featuring Pronto are triggered for about 70% of those searches (probably a very high percentage compared to the number PriceGrabber gets), there will be aprx. 54m total impressions for Pronto's listings. Assuming a CTR of 6% for those listings, Pronto will receive aprx. 3.2m clicks per month on it's listings or aprx. 40m clicks per year. A strong start.

There are a number of business issues to work out before Pronto replaces PriceGrabber. First, I don't know when PriceGrabber's contract runs out. I asked a long time ago and got no answer. Second, I'm sure that PriceGrabber's listings monetize a hell of a lot better than Pronto's listings (every PriceGrabber click is paid). So if Ask changes partners, it's going to lose out on some revenue...yes, Pronto can and will increase it's CPM, but it could take a long time to be really competitive with the established players. The business decision for Diller and crew then revolves around the opportunity cost of cutting revenue (albeit probably a small percentage) for Ask in favor of building up an ancillary IAC brand. Knowing a bit about Diller's track record, I have a feeling he's going to be fine with backing Pronto.

Posted by Brian Smith at 1:01 PM | Permalink

August 4, 2006

Searching For Other Search Engines At Search Engines

Yesterday, I thought I discovered Yahoo stealing searching from Google, but I did not, Rand discovered it. Basically, if you do a search on Yahoo for google, Yahoo puts up a Yahoo Shortcut asking you "Want to search the Web?" with Yahoo? Is this fair? Is this respectable? Who cares... But is this relevant?

Navigational searches are important. Does Google throw up a OneBox result doing the same? No, they do not. Yahoo doesn't do it for MSN or Ask.com, only for Google. When I asked GoodROI to ask Tim Converse of Yahoo on his WebmasterRadio show last night, Tim replied that he was unaware of that result but it is possible that it may be a joke. Meaning, sometimes the search engines play jokes with each other.

When I went over to Ask.com to do a search on Google, I got this Smart Answer that is incredibly useful and relevant (IMO) to this search.

When I went over to MSN yesterday I did not get anything special. But today, it seems MSN is playing the joke on Google & Yahoo but not on Ask. They ask "Want to search the Web? Try MSN Search" with the search box to MSN.

So now we have Yahoo and MSN both playing this game. Google doesn't do anything much special for these navigation searches. And Ask.com shows a detailed Smart Answer with details of each search company.

Why does Yahoo and MSN do this? Well, as I said it is most likely because Yahoo and MSN are portals. They attract less web savvy individuals and when they search at Yahoo or MSN, they may not understand that they are actually searching. Sounds kind stupid, but this is the case.

Matt Cutts of Google commented in the SEOMoz post saying;

Yahoo: "Want to search the Web?" User: "Yes, but not with you." Too funny. I wish I had a T-shirt with that on it. :)

So Chris Boggs decided to play artist and make a Did you mean? result in Google for good search engine, it does not really work, but he wanted to have fun.

I doubt this is just a joke between search engines. For a high volume keyword, trust me, it is high volume, like "Google," search engines typically play jokes with each other.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:51 AM | Permalink

June 13, 2006

Search Companies Energetically Seeking Electricity

The Wall Street Journal reports that the search companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask and possibly Google are looking to find cheap electricity to power all the computers and hardware that power the companies. The article says that one large data center can use as much energy as a city of 40,000 people! The search companies are looking for locations next to cheap energy sources such as former defense bunkers, near hydroelectric plants, and other locations where electricity is cheaper. Microsoft's data center consumption of power doubled over the past four years, so this is a serious concern for Microsoft and other search companies.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:02 AM | Permalink

May 2, 2006

News.com Interviews Ask.com's New CEO, Jim Lanzone

News.com has published an interview with Jim Lanzone, the new CEO of Ask.com. As you know, Jim Lanzone was appointed the CEO spot at Ask.com after Berkowitz left Ask.com for Microsoft. Since then, Jim flew off to SES Italy to give the keynote he was scheduled for months ago. During that time he gave a quick interview at John Battelle's blog. Today, News.com posted a longer interview with Jim Lanzone, asking some tough questions about Ask.com's future, Steve leaving, and competition.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:33 AM | Permalink

April 25, 2006

Quick Interview With Jim Lanzone; New CEO Of Ask.com

John Battelle has a quick interview with Jim Lanzone, the new CEO of Ask.com. He asks Jim three questions;

1) How feel? 2) Compete? (In relation to Steve joining MSN) 3) Changes?

Jim answers them, well, like a CEO would. Jim is currently in Italy, getting ready to keynote at SES Italy.

As a side note, I will be posting coverage of SES Toronto at my blog and posting roundups here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:28 AM | Permalink

April 24, 2006

Ask.com Appoints Jim Lanzone CEO

Just days after Ask.com chief Steve Berkowitz jumped ship to Microsoft's MSN, IAC/InterActive Corp. has appointed Vice President of Product Management Jim Lanzone as CEO. Congratulations, Jim!

From the press release announcing the move:

"Jim is one of the most respected leaders in the search industry, having been principally responsible every day for the turnaround of the Ask product and brand over the past several years," said Doug Lebda, IAC President and Chief Operating Officer. "With his vision for the future and successful track record for driving the Ask.com business, he has been and will be the ideal leader for the next stage of the company's growth."

"We have a lot of momentum behind Ask.com," said Mr. Lanzone. "My goal is to keep pushing us forward down the path we're on. With the team we have in place and the backing of IAC/InterActiveCorp, I believe Ask can take a significant piece of the search pie in the years ahead."

Want to comment? Join our forum thread named Jim Lanzone New CEO of Ask.com.

Postscript: John Battelle has a short but nice interview with Jim post-appointment now up here.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:42 AM | Permalink

April 22, 2006

Ask.com Chief Steve Berkowitz Jumps Ship To Microsoft's MSN

Steve Berkowitz, head of Ask.com and the man who has helped steered that service to new successes, has been hired by Microsoft to run its online business group.

Steve will be senior vice president of MSN's Online Business Group. Microsoft says:

He will be responsible for running the Online Business group, which includes include MSN.com, MSNTV and MSN Internet Access programming, advertising sales, business development, and marketing for Live Platforms, MSN and Windows Live. This team?s mission is to deliver world-class go to market leadership, that wins customers to our services and builds a world leading advertising business. The responsibility for the monetization of our Live Platform, MSN and Windows Live assets is owned by this team, and includes end-to-end management of the online P&L.

Steve is currently CEO of IAC Search & Media, which encompasses Ask. His start date with MSN is May 8. The New York Times reports that Steve's job at Ask is now being assumed by IAC Search & Media president Doug Lebda.

The news of Steve's hire was sent out to MSN employees on Friday with this announcement from Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's copresident of the platforms & services division:

I am pleased to announce that Steve Berkowitz will be joining the Platforms and Services Division (PSD) as Senior Vice President, Online Business Group, reporting to me. Steve succeeds David Cole, who will begin his leave of absence in May.

Most recently, Steve was the CEO of Ask.com, a division of IAC/InterActiveCorp. At Ask, Steve is credited with building the management team that orchestrated the turnaround of Ask.com, grew their user base, increased customer satisfaction, and gained share in the search market over the last year.

Steve is an accomplished senior executive with a rich skill set, including consumer brand building, media, marketing, operations, people management, finance, and technology. He also brings a great blend of start-up and high growth business experiences. Prior to joining Ask, Steve was the President and COO of IDG Books, where he successfully built a consumer brand by expanding the "Dummies" series of books to cover topics ranging from C++ to pet care.

Steve?s management experience, deep functional knowledge of the search and Internet space, and understanding of both the offline and online publishing worlds make him a great choice to lead the Online Business Group. He is a proven leader, and is excited by the opportunity to take the assets we?ve built in MSN and drive our software + services vision forward.

Steve will start this assignment on May 8th. David Cole and I will work together to ensure a smooth transition to Steve.

Please join me in welcoming Steve to Microsoft, and thanking David for his contribution to the company and to MSN.

Regards, Kevin Johnson Co-President Platforms & Services Division

I won't go into more depth on the move right now as it's the weekend, and I almost never work weekends. But I had to check my email today, saw the news from Microsoft and wanted to get something up quickly.

In short, I think it's a great win for Microsoft. Steve knows what it's like to be an underdog in the search space and fight your way back onto the radar screen. My main reaction really is why stop at Steve? Microsoft should have bought Ask long ago.

As I wrote before about the current search wars, Microsoft entered the battle against Google and Yahoo from square one. When it took on Netscape (and other players), it at least acquired technology rather than try to start from scratch.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Ask.com Chief Berkowitz Heads To MSN.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:57 AM | Permalink

April 19, 2006

Interview With Ask's Jim Lanzone

John Battelle continues rolling along with his new interview series, this time talking with Jim Lanzone, senior vice president and general manager of Ask. Jim delivers up usual good comments on moving past "10 blue links," improving relevance and freshness, coopetition with Google and more.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:27 AM | Permalink

March 30, 2006

Ask.com Gets Good Mossberg Review in WSJ

Gary Price points to a write up by tech guru Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal, where he says "Ask holds its own with Google, and even beats the champ (Google) on some searches." Mossberg also adds "Ask.com is well worth a try if you want to benefit from some features that go beyond Google." Read the full article here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:18 AM | Permalink

March 28, 2006

Barry Diller Talks About Ask

Last month at the New York Search Engine Strategies conference, Danny Sullivan sat down and had a keynote chat with Barry Diller, chairman of Ask.com's parent company, IAC. Andrew Goodman recaps the conversation between Danny and Barry in today's SearchDay article, Danny Sullivan Asks Barry Diller.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 7:32 AM | Permalink

February 27, 2006

Ask Upgrades and Rebrands Flagship Search Engine

Ask has finally taken the long-expected step of retiring its mascot, Jeeves, and rebranding its search engine. But today's rebranding goes far beyond a few cosmetic changes, introducing upgraded core search and a bevy of cool new tools that are customizable and extendible. Bottom line: it's a slick, impressive upgrade. I've got more details in today's SearchDay article, Ask Looses Jeeves, Gains New Features.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:01 AM | Permalink

February 26, 2006

Ask Jeeves Gets New Menu Sidebar, Maps; Retires Teoma Chris Sherman will have a more formal write-up later in SearchDay about new changes you can now spot up on Ask, in particular a "Search Tools" navigational sidebar that lets you jump between things like web and image search. New on that sidebar is a Maps area, where you can get traditional maps and aerial views. Ask has also announced that the Teoma search engine has been retired. Teoma.com now redirects to Ask Jeeves. The Teoma search technology is being rebranded as ExpertRank, something we predicted back in November.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:45 PM | Permalink

January 19, 2006

Keynote Says Google, Yahoo Preferred in North America

Keynote Systems has released the results of its annual study of North American searchers and their satisfaction with search engines. The study ranked user satisfaction by tracking the search behavior of 2,000 users on AOL Search, Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo, and found Google and Yahoo were clear #1 and #2 favorites, respectively. Today's SearchDay article, Survey: Google, Yahoo Still Favorites in North America, has the details. Also see yesterday's SearchDay article, Study: Google #1 in China, for details of a similar study Keynote performed in China.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:47 AM | Permalink

January 9, 2006

What Was Ask Jeeves Up to During the Consumer Electronics Show?

In a very short, sweet, and thought provoking blog post late Friday, Ask Jeeves points out that while other search providers were in Las Vegas last week touting all sorts services and products that often didn't have a direct relationship with web search, they were back at the office working to make web their web search service more useful and relevant. At least that's how I interpret the post. If Diller, Berkman, Lanzone and others at AJ soon are making the point that web search and info retrieval are still far from perfect or ideal, it's a valid point. Web search s by no means a solved problem.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:50 PM | Permalink

December 27, 2005

Ask Jeeves Drops "Jeeves" Part In France

We know that Ask Jeeves has promised a rebranding to come, with the smart money being on shortening the name to Ask and showing Jeeves the butler the door. Now Barry over at Search Engine Roundtable spots a Cre8asite forum discussion remarking how in France, it's simply Ask France -- not Ask Jeeves France. Barry also finds the same in Japan and Spain.

The French site went up earlier this month, as Abondance reports in French here. Still no sign of it being Ask With ExpertRank technology, however. We talked about how that might be coming here: Ask Jeeves To Rebrand Tech As ExpertRank Inside? As for the butler, while he might be out of the name, he's still featured prominently on the home page.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:00 AM | Permalink

October 7, 2005

Barry Diller Chats with Battelle at Web 2.0

Several sources including Red Herring, SearchViews and Clickz all offer highlights of John Battelle's conversation with the new owner of Ask Jeeves (I mean Ask.com) Barry Diller at Web 2.0.

Here are a few highlights:

From Red Herring: ?I see my company getting involved in making product in the vernacular?producing, financing, distributing film and digital products,? said Mr. Diller. ?That?s something that comes naturally. Everything is going to end up being in digital [format].?

IAC/InterActive fist considered acquiring AOL. ?We first thought AOL was it,? he said. ?How was the price tag? Let me say it was high.?

Why Search? ?We started this journey a few years ago when we were very worried about global search because we thought it could distintermediate our business,? he said.

On Internet Advertising ?The migration of advertisers is going to keep on coming to the Internet,? he said. ?So, we thought, ?if we fail, and we don?t gain share, this will be OK.??

From SearchViews Diller Talks Google Battelle: What comes to mind when you think of Google? Diller: You mean the evil that I would do to them? Battelle: Does Google bother you? Diller: No, why would they bother me? They're the first to clean the page up and offer just the box - genius. And then they delivered relevant results.

Josh Stylman and Peter Hershberg from SearchViews offer their "take away" from the Diller/Battelle conversation. They say that Ask/IAC does not plan to "out-Google Google" but IAC is, "going to focus on trying to be a totally differentiated service.

From Clickz Diller Talks More Google "It's a great service. Is it going to have 35 to 50 percent market share over time? Anything can happen."

Posted by Gary Price at 11:15 AM | Permalink

August 9, 2005

Ask Jeeves CEO Chats with Danny at Search Engine Strategies

The keynote conversation between Danny and Ask Jeeves CEO, Steve Berkowitz just ended and a summary is already online in the SEW Forums. Thanks Barry!

Posted by Gary Price at 12:51 PM | Permalink

July 21, 2005

Ask Jeeves The Search Engine Interviewed -- Circa March 2000

I keep seeing references going around recently to a funny interview with Ask Jeeves -- meaning Ask Jeeves the search engine. It is funny, but it's not new. It originally went online back in March 2000, as I reported in the Search Engine Report newsletter at the time:

Interview With The Search Engine FN Wire, March 2000 Humor site FN Wire interviews Ask Jeeves -- and I do mean Ask Jeeves -- not someone who works there.

Well, if you didn't see it then, I'm sure you'll find it funny now. Sadly (or not), you couldn't do that interview today on Ask Jeeves because of how the interface has changed.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:28 PM | Permalink

July 7, 2005

Ask Jeeves: Barry Diller Ponders Leaving Google Ad Network

The AP article: Barry Diller turns to Ask Jeeves for answers, takes a look at how Jeeves might fit into Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp an organization that the AP's Michael Liedtke calls a "crazy quilt of electronic commerce."

The article doesn't offer any new info about a possible name change at Ask Jeeves but Diller does tell Liedtke that he's considering leaving the Google ad network and forming an his own network when AJ's contract with Google expires in 2007.

Right now, I see this as very unlikely. Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy also agrees with this view. He's quoted throughout the article.

I think Mr. Diller is just "working the room" in hopes of getting a better deal from Google and/or seeing what Yahoo or Microsoft might come up with.

Whatever the case, Diller's comments will likely make for some great conversation.

Diller also is quoted saying: We came along at the right time at Fox [tv] with a differentiated product and I think the analogy to Ask is apt,'' Diller said. "It's a reasonable parallel to think that we can say, 'Here's a service with different features from Google and it is really good.' It's a bet that we are making and over time the world is going to get to see the result.

Ask Jeeves has become a very useful search resource. It's one that I love to demonstrate and discuss during training sessions since many people still think that the AJ of 2005 is the same AJ that was around in 1999 or 2000. People that I show AJ to are very often delightfully surprised.

Providing interesting and useful search services is not a field of dreams. Building it doesn't mean that people will learn about it, understand why it's useful and then come and use it.

As Greg Saks correctly points out in the article, it's also about branding, gaining mindshare, and getting the word out in a time when one company, Google, equals search for many people.

Yes, competing with Google by offering innovative and useful services is an issue. Google does great work but so do others. However, competing against the Google's mindshare/buzz juggernaut is something else. It just might be the biggest challenge other search companies face.

Posted by Gary Price at 7:32 PM | Permalink

June 30, 2005

Behind the Scenes at the Major Engines

All of the major search engines, to one degree or another, provide insights into what they're working on in their research and development labs. The quality and quantity of what's shared varies widely, but you can get a good sense of what to expect in the future by spending some time with what's available. Today's SearchDay article, What's Cooking in Search Engine Labs shows you where to find the best sources of inside information, both official and unofficial.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:28 AM | Permalink

May 30, 2005

Ask Jeeves Exec Jim Lanzone Answers Questions

5 Questions with Jim Lanzone, Senior VP of Search Properties, Ask Jeeves from SearchViews has Jim Lanzone explaining why he likes the Bloglines service Ask bought, favorite blogs he reads, Ask eyeing plug-ins for Firefox, vertical versus general search and growing ad sales internally at Ask. Still have questions? Live Q&A Session with Jim Lanzone, VP of Ask Jeeves at the Cre8asite Forums is going on right now, letting you post things you'd like him to answer.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:45 AM | Permalink

May 25, 2005

Diller: Ask Jeeves Might Get New Name

According to this Marketwatch.com story, Barry Diller told attendees at the D3 -- All Things Digital conference that he is condering a name change. Of course, this also assumes that the IAC/Ask Jeeves merger goes through.

Ask Jeeves has been doing some great during the past several years but for many people, who haven't taken a look at what they've been up to, their name has negative connotations about what Jeeves was liked in the late 1990's.

In other words, memories of bad search experiences does not help the company in trying to get people to take a look and hopefully use what they're developing.

When Diller was asked what names he and his team are considering, he told the audience:

"Might be one of those words [Ask or Jeeves] without the other," Diller answered, adding that the final decision on AskJeeves' new name isn't "finalized."

Hmm. I'm far from a marketing expert but "Jeeves" by itself would be no better than what they have now.

Ask.com would seem to make sense. Instead of searching for an answer, one would "ask" for an answer. How polite.

Of course, they could also try to capitalize on their competitors names. How does Yaheeves or Jeevoogle sound. (-;

Postscript: If Barry Diller and crew want to turn Ask Jeeves into Jeeves.com they're going to have to acquire the domain name (it's not like that Mr. Diller doesn't have the money or the lawyers) from someone in Minnesota.

The page that's visible at Jeeves.com today has been online since 2003.

Btw, Jeeves.org is registered to a company in New York City and Jeeves.net to a person in Virginia.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:28 PM | Permalink

April 15, 2005

Ask Jeeves 8th Birthday & History

Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me on the Ask Jeeves Blog is Ask celebrating its eighth birthday last week. It features a look at "old" versus "new" Jeeves. It also has some nice screenshots over time. Need more history? Check out the Ask Jeeves timeline here. Barry Schwartz uses that as a launching pad for his Ask Jeeves SEM Time Line of Events which ironically carries on past where Ask's own timeline leaves off. Happy Birthday, Ask Jeeves! from Chris Sherman covers some background from back when Ask turned 6.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:04 PM | Permalink

March 20, 2005

WSJ: IAC/InterActiveCorp Close to Acquiring Ask Jeeves

Note: see updated post, Official: IAC/InterActive Corp To Acquires Ask Jeeves.

According to a just published article in the Wall Street Journal, Ask Jeeves is set to be acquired by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp for about $2 billion in stock.

The Wall Street Journal article is only available to subscribers but highlights are available in these posts from Dow Jones and Marketwatch.com.

+ According to the WSJ, the deal could be announced as early as today. However, "exact details of the deal weren't available...and the transaction could still fall apart at the last minute."

+ Officials for AJ and IAC are not commenting.

+ Other IAC/InterActiveCorp properties include Expedia, CitySearch, Ticketmaster, eVite, and Match.com.

+ Worth noting: Ask Jeeves Local (launched last year) is powered with data from IAC's CitySearch.

While we're talking Ask Jeeves, Matt Hicks takes a look at some new "Teoma like" refinement features (Teoma's founder calls them "navigation through concepts" that will go live on the AJ site in the next few weeks. The technology was demonstrated last week at the ETech Conference. The article doesn't mention if the Teoma.com site will continue to offer what's presently available or also offer these new features. Whatever the case, I do hope they'll also continue to offer the "Resources" section that has been part of a Teoma results page since the site first went live. Using the Resources section is a great way to find "link rich" (aka meta) pages.

The article also mentions that Jeeves will soon launch "Ask Jeeeves Alpha" a site where they'll offer the public a chance to test new services.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:35 PM | Permalink

February 24, 2005

Interview With Ask Jeeves On Search

Mike Grehan has an interview up with Jim Lanzone, senior vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves and Apostolos Gerasoulis, founder of the Teoma search engine that powers Ask Jeeves: In conversation with...Jim Lanzone & Apostolos Gerasoulis of Ask Jeeves/Teoma.

Gerasoulis remarks that he feels competing search engine Google is now calculating link values "locally" in the way that Ask Jeeves has long done, that meaning to find all the pages that match a certain criteria and THEN calculate which are most popular by analyzing links within them.

Ask said similar things after the infamous Google "Florida" update of Nov-Dec. 2003, and my Speculation On Google Changes article for Search Engine Watch members written back then explains more about the local ranking idea along with comments from Ask Jeeves.

Want to discuss that more? Our Ask Jeeves's Apostolos Says Google Doesn't Use PageRank forum thread is a place where some are discussing, as is our Google Feb. 2005 Update: Observations About Changes thread.

Lanzone comments on the heavy number of paid listings some have found at Ask Jeeves and how these don't show up that way for all searches. Indeed, our recent forum thread The Little Engine That Could - Part II notes how for Firefox users, Ask Jeeves seems to be deliberately showing even fewer sponsored links perhaps to please a perceived "techie" audience that might dislike them.

The interview also dives into more about the history of Ask Jeeves and Teoma, plus Ask feeling they'll maintain the Ask Jeeves brand as well as the other brands they acquired through the ISH purchase last year (want to discuss that more? See our The Little Engine That Could - Part II and Ask Jeeves is One Brand - Teoma Who? forum threads).

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:43 AM | Permalink

February 2, 2005

The Butler Now Has a Weblog

Ask Jeeves has launched a weblog. The AJ Weblog joins blogs from Yahoo, Google, and MANY other search providers. The first post shares some info about and photos of the new AJ offices in Oakland, CA. You'll also find links to the Bloglines popular feeds list as well as a weblog search button. A click on the Ask Jeeves weblog button sends the query to the Bloglines database. You'll find the Ask Jeeves feed here.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:19 PM | Permalink

December 21, 2004

Most Popular Search Terms 2004: Ask Jeeves

The Ask Jeeves list of the year's most popular search terms is online. You'll find Top 10 lists for the following categories: + Top News searches + Top Celebrity searches + Top Movie searches + Top Picture searches + Top Destination searches + Most Popular things to do on the Internet

Thanks to Barry S. for the news tip.

Last week, year-end rankings from Lycos, AOL, and BlogPulse became available.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:19 AM | Permalink

September 21, 2004

Video: Mr. Jeeves Goes Around the World

Place the following in your fun folder.

Here's a video tour (-: of the places Mr. Jeeves traveled to while he was away.

I think the Teoma rocket car is cool!

Posted by Gary Price at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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