November 8, 2006

In The Election Results Race, Yahoo's The Winner

Like many Americans, I wanted to know what was up with the vote in the US midterm elections this morning. As a search analyst, I then wanted to know how the search engines performed in helping me find out. The results are in! Yahoo's the winner by far, but I'd still take the New York Times over it. Come along for an illustrated tour.

Google told us last month that Google Earth was all geared up to be an election guide. That's great if you've downloaded Google Earth and wanted to learn more before the election. But how about a quick, fast summary of what happened yesterday? What's Google got for us?

The Google home page is as minimal as always, no help there -- not even a special logo as in the 2004 race.

How about a search for "election results," which I think is a fair query to try. After all, using Google Trends, I can see a huge spike for that term after the last elections in the US:

I also checked the volume for just "results," and that was even higher whereas "elections" was much lower (see them all compared here). So my two queries for this test were "election results" and "results." On Google, both disappointed.

Here are election results on Google:

CNN's top with 2004 results! I know -- web search is always behind the times. That's why Google inserts that big news results OneBox unit above the regular results. Let's click on the main news link there, which takes us to news results:

Pretty bad. News about the dollar, stock prices -- but who won?!!! I've got to really work to figure this out, especially compared to the New York Times, as I'll show at the end of this story.

Maybe I head to the actual Google News home page:

Nope. I get some headlines telling me about the Democratic house victory, but it could be much better.

FYI, checking on a search for just results, I don't even get the news headlines inserted. Overall, I found Google to be a pretty poor resource.

How about Yahoo? The home page there immediately gives you some news:

If I actually gravitate to the picture and resist the pull of the search box, the "Full elections coverage" link takes me to a Full Coverage page with lots of info, including an interactive results page (my link takes that out of the normal pop-up box, but it still works great):

This is very, very nice. I can see at a glance who is ahead in the race for control of the US House Of Representatives, plus with a click I can check out the Senate or governor races. Selecting any state also gives me the information about races with that state.

I love this. It very similar to what impressed me at the New York Times. I hope Yahoo searchers found it. However, I suspect many bypassed it. To understand why, let's do that search for election results:

Similar to Google, Yahoo inserts a big "News Results" shortcut unit above the regular results, to help detour searchers into the freshest results. Of course, searcers might bypass that. If so, unlike Google, Yahoo has managed to get the CNN 2006 results page up rather than the CNN 2004 page. Nice. After that, there's Fox News 2006. But c'mon -- Yahoo's own special election results are third. This is one case where I'd totally applaud a little hand manipulation to get that to the top, especially to highlight that interactive results summary page.

Still, the web search results for this particular day at Yahoo far outshine Google. That's almost certainly due to some human editing, which is fine. Along with the sites I've mentioned, you get the New York Times politics page, USA Today's politics page, C-SPAN's 2006 results page, the ABC News politics page, CBS News's 2006 page, politics from the LA Times, then the Washington Post's 2006 results page. All of these are excellent choices. If Yahoo did human intervention to make this happen, kudos to them. You can check out a snapshot of the entire page here.

Over at Google, nothing is either timely or general enough. The Virginia state election board, California election info, assorted things dating from 2004 -- then oddly Virginia and California get another bump for their 2006 pages. Ugh. See the entire list in the snapshot here.

What happens if we detour into the news area that Yahoo promotes at the top of the page? Disappointment:

Yes, relevant news stories. And the image results to the side are kind of fun. But some hand help could have made a difference. How about a promo for that awesome election map of Yahoo's?

Let's go over to Ask, where I had high hopes. Ask has made a big deal of its special Smart Answers for the election, and they are cool. But will I see them? Yes, if I search for election:

I'd also get to this box if I went to the Ask home page and clicked on the Election Day link there:

But for election results (what I believe to be the more popular query), all I get is a small news unit:

The news unit will take me over to some news results, but like Yahoo's, these aren't thrilling. It's pick and choose through what you want, rather than any type of easy overview. As for a search on just results, that doesn't even bring back the news unit at all.

The overall web search results, similar to Google, are underwhelming. Nothing really helpful for the 2006 results pops up (see the full results in the snapshot here).

Even the special Smart Answers box, had it shown up, isn't that helpful for what I want now -- RESULTS! None of the featured links with it takes me to results.

Microsoft, what have you got for me at Windows Live Search? On the home page, nothing. For search on election results, it's disappointing old or non-targeted results (screenshot here). Unlike the others, there are no news results inserted above these. A search for just results is no better. If I specifically try a news search for election results, as with the others, there's no attempt to get me a comprehensive overview. It's up to me to review each story and hope for a good match.

Ironically, at the largely overshadowed MSN site, similar to Yahoo, I get a big election photo on the home page along with links, including one called "state-by-state results" that leads to MSNBC here. And over there is a pretty neat "Democracy Dashboard" giving me that type of overview I wanted:

It's a pity Windows Live didn't reach out to either MSN or MSNBC and do something special to point to this or somehow integrate it into the results.

What about AOL? From the home page, it's pretty easy to spot a link to a AOL election page with results for the House, Senate and more:

Searching for election results brings back disappointing Google listings in the main results. However, the new FullView column does a good job of dividing news into elections overall, US Senate coverage, US House coverage and more. And clicking on any of the "View all" links brings up the special AOL election page (see the full page here).

Now to the New York Times. I headed over there pretty much by chance. There are any number of newspapers I might of thought of off the top of my head, and usually its my original home town paper of the Los Angeles Times. But I hit the NY Times today, and boy was I glad.

Right on the home page, above the "fold" is an easy-to-spot election map. In seconds, it organized the most important information I was looking for into a way for me to know what was going on:

Drilling into the full map was even better. There, I could click on any state -- in particular the undecided ones -- and see the current situation:

Just when I was thinking "what if," I saw the "Create Outcomes" tab where I could click on a state and flip it to the Democrats or the Republicans to see how it might go with the Senate. Outstanding!

Other newspapers or web sites might have done as well with similar displays. If so, my apologies that this wasn't a review of the best election results sites. Instead, it was really meant to see how well the search engines held up as information resources for this particular news event.

Overall, I've written many times before that there's a role humans can play in search results. Today -- this was a perfect example of that. Yahoo almost certainly put some human effort into crafting results, and it was the clear victor in terms of quality of what was coming up in web search listings. AOL comes in second, again where human effort has helped its FullView listings help make up for the poor crawler-based results from Google.

In third, I put Google and Ask. Google's results were poor, but at least it floated some news results that may have helped. Ask, I was rooting for. But that Smart Answers box simply wasn't showing up for the queries I thought people were doing. Even if people were getting it for "election," it wasn't helpful to get election results. I really appreciate the effort, and if this had been for something other than actual results, Ask would have been great. In last place -- Windows Live.

This campaign of sorts is also one of those classic "what if" races. With just a little more effort, Yahoo would have had a landslide victory by getting people to its great overview page. The same is true for AOL. Ask, with just a bit more thought, could have had that box coming up for "election results" rather than just "elections" and added some links to get people to actual results. Windows Live, if it had remembered its MSN origins, might not be in last. And Google? A company that's all about organizing information might not have put in such a poor performance if it used some human power in the way the New York Times did.

Postscript: See also Case Study: Digg Versus Google News Traffic from me on my personal blog that covers how this article ultimately brought in lots of traffic from Google News from those unable to find election results there, along with lots of other data and a comparison to traffic from a top story at Digg on the same day.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:17 AM | Permalink

November 2, 2006

Ask.com Launches Elections Smart Answers

Ask.com launched some new smart answers for the upcoming elections. You can do a search on elections 2006 to see "General Elections are Tuesday, November 7, 2006." The smart answer also gives you links to the Republican Party and the Democrats web sites. Additional quick links they give within the smart answers include; Analysis by Poll Reports, Race Profiles, Key Races, Key Issues, Races by Issue, and Congressional Districts Map. The additional resources include Candidate Reports, Ballot Items, Campaign Fact Checking, Campaign Funding, and Evaluating Initiatives. Finally, you can also break down by state by searching for New York state elections. I have taken some screen captures also.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:37 AM | Permalink

October 10, 2006

Sizing Up Search Engine Instant Answers

The major search services have all be increasing their efforts to deliver focused "answers" to many types of queries. They each take a different approach to this process, with names such as Ask's Smart Answers, Yahoo's Shortcuts, Google's Onebox results and Microsoft's Instant Answers. In today's SearchDay article, A Closer Look at Ask's Smart Answers, SEW correspondent Brian A. Smith kicks off a four-part series that takes an in-depth look at each of these programs, illustrating the unique approaches offered by the major search engines.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 8:09 AM | Permalink

September 28, 2006

Ask.com Upgrades Weather Results & Adds Earthquake Data

Gary Price reports that Ask.com has launched an enhanced version of the weather results and has added earthquake data to Smart Answers. For an example of the enhanced weather results, do a search on weather in 10010 and then click on the top link and you will get a lot more detail, check it out. Also, if you want earthquake information, just search on earthquakes and you will get the most recent earthquake activity, of course you can also search by location.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:57 AM | Permalink

August 31, 2006

Ask.com Adds Emoticons Or Smiley To Smart Answers

The Ask.com Blog posted that they have added a new Smart Answer to their suitcase, it is called an emoticon or smiley. You know they look like, :-) or ;-) or :D, you get my point. So now if you search on some of the more popular emoticon at Ask.com you will get a Smart Answer.

For example, a search on :-) brings back;

It does not work for all the emoticons on the dictionary but it works for many. It is also kind of important to note that this has been live at Ask.com for, I believe, three months now.

They also have Smart Answers for Internet shorthand, such as abbreviations you use while chatting with friends or txting with people. One example that works is the brb abbreviation that stands for "be right back," but what does not work, is the IMO abbreviation that stands for "in my opinion."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:55 AM | Permalink

August 17, 2006

Ask.com Adds DVD & TV Data To Movie Smart Answers

The Ask.com Blog announced an upgrade to their movie Smart Answer feature that adds DVD purchase information and TV data. Here is a brief summary of the blog entry.

(1) A query on movies brings up a form for you to locate movies.

(2) A search on a movie title brings up the movie description, reviews (if available), the official site, the trailer and a zip code box. Try a search on Snakes on a Plane.

(3) Searching for a specific movie and zip code gives you a quicker answer, try Snakes on a Plane 10010.

(4) Searching on a movie title of a movie out of the theater will give you movie details, reviews and a link to buy the DVD. For example search on The Matrix Reloaded.

(5) TV junky? Searching on the name of the TV show will bring up the shows description, the official site, TV and episode schedule, plus links to past episodes on DVD if available. Try it out on the King of Queens (love that show).

More details at The Ask Blog.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:30 AM | Permalink

August 2, 2006

Ask.com Releases ISBN Number Smart Answers

Gary Price notes that Ask.com has added support for ISBN number searches. For example, conduct a search on 091096551X, which is the book Gary Price and Chris Sherman wrote, you should notice an image of the book and a link to compare prices. This is a neat feature, but I should note that entering in the same ISBN number at Yahoo Search gives you a Yahoo Shortcut that takes you to comparison shopping in the Yahoo Network. It was a nice feature for Ask.com to add.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:14 AM | Permalink

July 20, 2006

Ask.com Adds RSS Smart Answers

The Ask.com blog announced a new feature to its Smart Answers line up today. For example, if you do a search on se roundtable an abbreviation of my blogs name, you will get RSS feed results at the top from my blog. The Ask blog says that the initial list of sites included "was selected based on the most popular feeds chosen by our users in Bloglines."

Currently, I am not sure why it does not work for the query Search Engine Roundtable when it works for the abbreviated version. Note that it does work well for Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Watch Blog but it does not pull the SEW blog RSS feed, it pulls the SearchDay feed.

Here is a screen capture of the first query:

More details at the Ask Blog.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 1:56 PM | Permalink

June 9, 2006

World Cup: Google Does The Logo Thing; Yahoo & Ask Have Smart Shortcuts

Google's sporting a special World Cup-version of its logo in honor of the start of the World Cup today, while Yahoo and Ask are offering special results that come up after World Cup-related searches. A round-up of what's going on, below.

Over at Google, there's new World Cup module that you can add to your personalized home page to keep up on matches and standings. The company is also promoting the new module on its regular home page to encourage take-up. ZDNet has a screenshot of that. Here's what I see from the UK:

The Official Google Blog is also pushing other ways to tap into World Cup info via Google, though most of these things are pretty generic.

Gary Price has done a recap of other things in the search world touching on the World Cup, focusing on ways to get mobile alerts in the US and in Europe and the fast facts that FIFA is offering.

Gary also spots a World Cup Yahoo Shortcut you can see here (but no Yahoo logo change, not even on Yahoo Germany). Ask is offering a similar Smart Answer service as you'll see here. Ask also didn't change its logo, but the home page shows flags for each team in the World Cup:

Click on the flag, and you'll get a Smart Answer with related info like you'll see for the US here.

Over at MSN Search, no custom answers and no logo changes that I can see (nor at Windows Live Search, either). But back to Google, they are doing some OneBox answers, like you'll see here or here.

Over at Technorati, there's nothing on the home page indicating anything special for the World Cup for those who want to track it in the blogosphere. Clearly if Niall Kennedy hadn't left, the World Cup would be all over Technorati. Niall declares his love of soccer here today (so Niall, get on your MSN Windows Live colleagues to do something).

OK, OK, the MSN portal home page is at least pointing to a two minute guide to the World Cup done in conjunction with Fox Sports. Of course, this is the same partnership whose official store can't send US football kit for kids when promise, so phooey on them. More on that, plus my own thoughts on the World Cup madness that's starting on my personal blog in In The Middle Of World Cup Mad England, I Root For The US.

Don't forget, yesterday's post US, UK Searchers & The World Cup covered some of the top searches involving footballers in the UK and the US.

Am I missing something? Comment!!! It's easy -- just head to World Cup, Search & Stuff at our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Postscript: Google Blogoscoped notes there are different country-specific logos at Google using the team colors of those countries

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:23 AM | Permalink

May 29, 2006

Ask Recognizing Memorial Day

The Ask homepage has recognized Memorial Day with an image and link to customized search results. While Memorial Day is specifically an American holiday, Thanksgiving is also specifically American and most search engines had fun with their logo on that day last year. Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft apparently skipped the day for custom search, while Ask has nicely provided references to the history of Memorial Day, recipes and other observance tips. Postscript: We can expect most holidays to be highlighted on Ask in the future. Our friend Gary Price wrote in to explain the Memorial Day reference at Ask is part of their Smart Answers feature which automatically includes Holidays such as Labor Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday and Purim. Smart Answers really seems like a throwback to the past with Ask(Jeeves) having started life as a directory of answers to approximately 200,000 questions. They originally provided editor qualified sites as "answers" and backfilled as a meta search engine to supplement and in the cases queries didn't trigger a response from the directory itself.

Postscript 2: To clarify, Smart Answers are different insofar as one doesn't need to pose a question. They also can provide access to more information, including Smart Answers with drop down menus to more Smart Answers. A query like dogs provides a drop down menu that navigates to more Smart Answers on specific breeds.

Posted by Detlev Johnson at 12:55 PM | Permalink

May 24, 2006

Ask.com Shows Off More Smart Answers

Gary Price, Director of Online Information Resources at Ask.com, writes at the Ask.com Blog about some of the stock related smart answers. Gary details how Ask.com is able to give you the answer to your query quickly. Some stock examples Ask.com gives you include; Stocks AMR, Ticker Symbol Sirius, CSCO, Stock Quote Pepsico. But this also works well for more investor researcher like questions such as; Market Capitalization KO (Coca-Cola), Outstanding Shares Fedex, Price Earnings Ratio GE, or Nike stock. Personally, I have set Ask.com to be my homepage months ago. I use it often when I want the quick answer to a question or research I want.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:44 AM | Permalink

December 20, 2005

Ask Jeeves Adds Translations, Pronunciations & Synonym Lookups

Word from Oakland today that Ask Jeeves has just added page translation, easier synonym lookups and definitions with pronunciations. Details and examples have just been posted on the AJ Blog.

What's New?

+ Page translations Note the 2nd and 3rd listings on the results page tbat have new "translate the page" links next to the title. Translation is powered by Reverso Translation software. Like with all mechanical translations, caveat emptor.

+ Improved Dictionary Smart Answers Definitions now come The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Terms like define [foo] or what does [foo] mean, trigger the dictionary feature. In some cases, you'll also find a direct link to a thesaurus for the term.

Also, clicking the hyperlink for any term you're defining will take you to even more definitions and info about the word. Ask calls these full reference pages.

Synonyms Along with the link to a theasurus available via the dictionary, you can access synonyms directly by using trigger words like: + Another word for run * Synonyms for travel * speaker synonyms Each synonym is hyperlinked to a dictionary definition of the term. Synonyms also have full "reference pages."

Pronunciations + Along with reading a text definition, AJ allows you to hear each word pronounced (assuming your computer has a sound card and speakers/headphones). Click the sound icon and you'll hear the term delivered as a wave file.

Let's hope 2006 as is strong of a year for AJ's Smart Answers as 2005 was.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:36 PM | Permalink

December 17, 2005

Special Holiday Goodies, Pages, and Info from a Few of the Major Engines

Several of the large web engines are offering special holiday goodies from smart answers to holiday questions to logos to holiday borders around ads.

Let's review: + Ask Jeeves offers up Smart Answers with info about and links about: Christmas ||| Hanukkah ||| Kwanzza. + Google places special festive borders around AdWords on web results pages for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzza, and some related holiday words. + A festive snowman visits the logo on the Yahoo home page and provides a direct link to Yahoo Holiday Guide. + AOL Search offers "snapshots" atop of results pages with links and info about the three widely celebrated December holidays: C ||| H ||| K.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:22 PM | Permalink

December 14, 2005

Ask Jeeves UK Releases Smart Search Tool for Football Fans

Football fans in the UK (see, I didn't call it soccer) have a new Ask Jeeves Smart Search resource to use and quickly find and access info about their favorite clubs(s) and players. According to Netimperative, the new Smart Search works for, "Premiership, Championship, Scottish Premier League or national football team, as well as Guinness Premiership, Celtic League, and national rugby union teams with more sports and teams to be added in the future." What will you find? A Smart Search box at the top of the page with, "news, fixture lists, and stats for their chosen team, as well as a quick facts box with information such as manager name and team nickname in one package at the top of the search results page."

Smart Search result boxes are also available for top players.

To access, just enter the team name, league name, or player name into the search box.

Here are three examples: + Player + Team + League

Recently, AskJeeves.com released a Smart Searches with recipes and another with video game info. I've also blogged about a favorite Smart Search that contain info about tv programs, new and old.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:28 PM | Permalink

November 22, 2005

Ask Jeeves Adds Multimedia Search

Ask Jeeves has announced a content licensing agreement with GoFish to provide multimedia content in search results. The first phase allows you to search for music, video, podcasts and other multimedia content. If found, multimedia results will be presented in "Smart Answers" at the top of search results, allowing you to view, listen to or purchase multimedia files. Try it with this query for afro celt sound system. Jeeves says that additional integration of GoFish content will be "ongoing."

Posted by Chris Sherman at 1:22 PM | Permalink

October 31, 2005

AllRecipes.com Cooks Up Smart Searches for Ask.com

I recently blogged that Ask Jeeves was offering a new Smart Search with direct links to recipes from the AllRecipes.com database. Today, the Dayton Business Journal offers a profile of this recipe/cooking vertical.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:46 PM | Permalink

October 18, 2005

October 3, 2005

Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz Proposes Via Ask Jeeves Search Results

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable is getting married. He proposed to his girlfriend by getting her to type her name into Ask Jeeves, where the Ask Jeeves team kindly helped long-time Ask Jeeves-watcher Barry by rigging up a custom answer. Hmm -- perhaps something that could even be a future product offering? Barry tells you more here: First Ever Wedding Proposal via Search Engine. Congrats, Barry and Yisha -- and Happy New Year, as well! Want to send your congrats? Drop them a note at in the thread at our SEW Forums, Wedding Bells For Rustybrick, As He Proposes Via Ask Jeeves!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:50 AM | Permalink

October 1, 2005

Ask Jeeves Smart Search Makes Basic TV Program Reference Info a Click Away

When Ask Jeeves (aka Ask.com) launched a slew of new Smart Search options in August I briefly mentioned that info about tv programs was now part of the Smart Search service. However, it was just in the last day or two that I realized the number of tv programs AJ offers Smart Answer boxes for.

Smart Search boxes for television programs often contain a plot overview, link to the official site, episode guides, images, and links to purchase DVD's (if available). I've found Smart Answers for shows currently airing like The OC, 24, Law and Order and The Simpsons. A search for "The Office" shows Smart Answers for both the NBC and BBC versions. Nice. Classics programs including The Andy Griffith Show, Saturday Night Live, The Twilight Zone are Smart Search ready. Even cartoons like Speed Racer and The Flintstones are included.

Ask provides some of the show reference info from Zap2it.com and TV.com.

Let's hope Ask continues to develop this and other Smart Search research tools with more related links and in the case of tv, video clips.

Postscript: I even noticed Smart Answer boxes (on Ask.com) for UK tv classics like Fawlty Towers and Eastenders.

Postscript 2: I also spotted some tv-related Smart Answers on Ask Jeeves UK.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:52 PM | Permalink

September 15, 2005

Ask Jeeves Unveils Gift Finder

The Ask Jeeves Blog has news about AJ's new gift finder. It's powered by another IAC/InterActive property, Gifts.com. Yes, it's IAC/Jeeves synergy.

The new gift finder can be accessed via this interface or by a Smart Answer on web results pages if the search query suggests the searcher is looking for this type of info. For example: a search for "birthday gifts" shows a Smart Answers box at the top of the results page. From here, simply click and focus your search to identify specific items by price, recipient, or interest. Here's another example, this time a search for anniversary gifts. Jeeves continues to offer a product/shopping search tool in conjunction with PriceGrabber. Btw, Smart Answers with direct links into the AJ product search database are also available for specific products and product categories. Here's an example.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:01 AM | Permalink

September 8, 2005

Ask Jeeves Offers Smart Search Box with Hurricane Katrina Info

I just noticed that Ask Jeeves is now offering a Smart Search answer, located at the very top of the web results page, when search terms indicate that the searcher is looking for info about Hurricane Katrina. I checked a few other web engines and noticed that AOL Search is the only engine to offer something similar. Other engines only offer news headlines on web results pages.

This new AJ Smart Answer is not only useful but also a good illustration of how Smart Search results can save the searcher time, clicks, effort, and aggravation getting to quality resources (maps, imagery, relief info, etc.) about a particular topic. I'm a big fan of it!

In some cases, Jeeves offers up factual answers mined from well-known web reference tools. In other cases, a Smart Search box might provide direct links straight to quality resources about a particular topic, event, etc. You might want to think of it and similar types of Smart Search results as easy to access "bookshelves" of quality links.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:05 PM | Permalink

August 22, 2005

Ask Jeeves Unleashes More Smart Answers

Long before MSN, Yahoo, or Google began including answers (not just links) for specific types of ready reference questions in web results sets, Ask Jeeves was already providing direct answers or what they call Smart Answers.

Today, Jeeves is releasing even more Smart Answers. As I've said before, AJ's Smart Answers along with the other large search companies now provide, continue to turn "web" search into "answer" search for certain types queries.

Ask Jeeves launched Smart Answers in April 2003 with Zip Codes, movie times, and driving directions. Another early Smart Answer (still available and something we now see elsewhere) serves images from their image database directly onto web results pages. Since then, they've launched numerous additions to the service including a big helping 14 months ago.

At that time Jim Lanzone, Senior Vice President, Search Properties, at AJ told SearchDay,

"Smart Search is about providing the right information in the right place at the right time," said Jim Lanzone, vice-president of product management for Ask Jeeves. "We can match up with specialized databases on the fly. We're built to scale Smart Search with others people's data."

One of the things I like about Smart Answers is that in many cases you'll not only get the basic facts listed at the top of a web results page but you'll also find direct links to additional sources of info. These types of links really have the potential to save the searcher time, effort, and aggravation.

What's New So, what's new from AJ today? Here's a list of the new Smart Answers. Each is linked to an example.

World Nations: Quick Facts
US States: Quick Facts

US.

Mammals
Popular TV Shows information
Famous People: Music profiles
Video Games: All major titles plus platform
NASCAR: Races & Drivers
ISBN Search
Periodic Table of Elements
US Area Code lookup
Planets: Quick Facts

Let's hope Mr. Diller is onboard with the Smart Answers service and they keep rolling out. Although it has been tried in the past, perhaps the time has come to build a powerful, open web "fast fact" database. Perhaps this would also be a way for AJ or whatever they'll be called in the future to distinguish themselves from other services. Heck, you could even create verticals for various types of questions (sports, history, current events). These types of services would also work well on the mobile web. Advertising? How about companies sponsoring different "fact" verticals? For example, Nike might sponsor a database full of sports facts. Since geo-location is also possible the same database could be sponsored by various local and/or regional sporting good stores, teams, etc.

Finally, Jeeves should also be promoting Smart Answers to specific user groups. One that comes to mind is educators. The promotion would allow this large group of influential users to know about a service that could potentially save them and their students effort. It could also show them that the Ask Jeeves of 2005 is not the same service that was around in 1998 or 1999. It's been my experience that many teachers who DO know the Ask Jeeves brand still believe that the service hasn't undergone any changes and is still serving up the less than useful results it once provided pre-2001.

It would also be great if AJ would partner with the library community and subject experts to not only identify types of questions worthy of a Smart Answer but also to help choose what sources are most useful and authoritative.

July 7, 2005

Google Joins Jeeves and Yahoo in Providing Currency Conversions

Via Google Blogoscoped, word that Google has joined Ask Jeeves and Yahoo in offering online currency conversion rates posted directly onto web results page.

For example: 1 Australian Dollar in British Pounds. More examples here.

Ask Jeeves has offered a currency converter as part of their Smart Search program for over a year. The same thing is true at Yahoo.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:54 PM | Permalink

April 4, 2005

Google Joins Yahoo & Ask With Direct Display Of Stock Market Data In Results

Google has joined Yahoo and Ask Jeeves and is now placing a current stock chart and other info directly into search results pages. Previously, you had to click a second time to get to this info.

For example: if you enter the ticker symbol GOOG, you'll see the current stock price plus today's chart.

Actually clicking on the GOOG link takes you to a set of financial info "tabs" with info from a variety of sources. Google has offered this information for several years. In fact, use the search syntax stocks:symbol (such as stocks:goog), and you skip web search results and instead go right to the financial info tabs.

Yahoo has already had direct display of stock charts in results, as you can see in this example.

Yahoo offers bit less financial info in the direct display, but they do include a couple of news headlines. If you begin your research at Yahoo Finance and enter a ticker symbol you'll find even more info. In fact, this is one of the resources that Google ironically draw upon for its Google's "financial info tabs".

Ask Jeeves offers Smart Search results box with a current stock chart, most of the same current financial data Google offers, and direct links for news and detailed company info via Marketwatch.com

This Google Blog posting has more including info about how to access stock quotes via SMS. 4INFO.net and Synfonic are two other services that offer stock quotes via SMS.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:01 PM | Permalink

February 19, 2005

Ask Jeeves UK Gets Hello Celebrity Content

First, a brief article on the Revolution web site discusses a new deal that will allow Ask Jeeves UK to use content from Hello! magazine (celebrity news and profiles) for their Famous People Smart Search service.

Second, Ask Jeeves UK is providing search services on the Virgin Radio Toolbar

Posted by Gary Price at 12:20 PM | Permalink

February 17, 2005

Jeeves Creates Smart Search Shortcuts for Blogs and RSS

I've noticed a couple of new Smart Search result boxes on Ask Jeeves serps. If you search for the term blogs or weblog you'll see a Smart Search box (at the top of the page) that includes numerous links with basic info about blogs and RSS that come from AJ's recent acquisition, Bloglines. A search box for the Bloglines search engine is also part of the Smart Result. A Smart Answer for RSS is also online. It includes a link to Bloglines, info about RSS standards from Harvard and links to RSS feeds from Moreover. Placing these links in a single location at the top of results page can not only help someone new to blogs and RSS access basic info quickly and easily but also help promote the Bloglines service.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:21 AM | Permalink

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