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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 Askâ€™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 Deborah Richman 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: "Weâ€™ve been a complex enterprise almost from the very beginning 12 years ago, with hundreds of transactions over those years. And while weâ€™ve created a lot of value, Iâ€™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,â€ 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
- IACâ€™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 IACâ€™s Retailing segment, including HSN TV, hsn.com, and the Cornerstone Brands, Inc. portfolio of catalogs, web sites and retail locations, including Alstoâ€™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 Ticketmasterâ€™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 companyâ€™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.comÂ® 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.comÂ® 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.comÂ® 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

Search Companies Energetically Seeking Electricity

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:02 AM | Permalink

Search Companies Energetically Seeking Electricity

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:02 AM | Permalink

Search Companies Energetically Seeking Electricity

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:33 AM | Permalink

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:33 AM | Permalink

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

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 Kevin Heisler at 8:28 AM | Permalink

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 Kevin Heisler at 8:28 AM | Permalink

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 Kevin Heisler 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

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:

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 Kevin Heisler at 10:42 AM | Permalink

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:

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 Kevin Heisler at 10:42 AM | Permalink

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:

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 Kevin Heisler 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

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:

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:

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

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:57 AM | Permalink

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:

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:

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

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:57 AM | Permalink

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:

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:

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

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

Interview With Ask's Jim Lanzone

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:27 AM | Permalink

Interview With Ask's Jim Lanzone

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:27 AM | Permalink

Interview With Ask's Jim Lanzone

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

Ask.com Gets Good Mossberg Review in WSJ

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Ask.com Gets Good Mossberg Review in WSJ

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Ask.com Gets Good Mossberg Review in WSJ

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

Barry Diller Talks About Ask

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:32 AM | Permalink

Barry Diller Talks About Ask

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:32 AM | Permalink

Barry Diller Talks About Ask

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

Ask Upgrades and Rebrands Flagship Search Engine

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:01 AM | Permalink

Ask Upgrades and Rebrands Flagship Search Engine

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:01 AM | Permalink

Ask Upgrades and Rebrands Flagship Search Engine

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

Keynote Says Google, Yahoo Preferred in North America

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:47 AM | Permalink

Keynote Says Google, Yahoo Preferred in North America

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:47 AM | Permalink

Keynote Says Google, Yahoo Preferred in North America

Posted by Kevin Heisler 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

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:50 PM | Permalink

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

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:50 PM | Permalink

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 pro