September 26, 2007

Ask To Launch New PPC Platform October 2

Ask has announced it will launch its new Sponsored Listing platform October 2. ASL 2.0 - in keeping with the world's love for the 2.0 extension - promises improvements in cost and budget controls, and other benefits.

The addition of average positioning information should help determine how much to bid. The allowance of multiple ads will help test different creatives against the same keywords - though the delivery will be optimized only - there will not be the ability to opt out of the CTR impacting the delivery.

ASL 2.0 Overview (as reported by Ask)

* Improvements in cost and budget controls. * New ad structure improves content management. * Streamlined UI simplifies common tasks. * More flexible reporting. * Enhanced Bulk Upload tool.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:24 PM | Permalink

July 25, 2007

SEW Experts: Turning Local Inside Out

In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Turning Local Inside Out," Kevin Ryan takes a look at what local search looks like today, and why one-stop technology and search providers have an advantage over the big sales forces and more heavily regulated telephone directory advertising..

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

July 17, 2007

Microsoft Adds Ask Sponsored Listings to Office Live Ad Management

Microsoft has added Ask Sponsored Listings to its adManager service on the Office Live platform. Using adManager, small businesses can buy and manage search ads from a simplified interface. Previously, the ad options were Microsoft's MSN Network and Live Search.

"This is one of the first times you've had search engines joining together to meet the needs for small businesses," Michael Schultz, U.S. business and marketing lead for Microsoft Office Live, told ClickZ News. "What's significant about Ask.com getting together with Microsoft Office Live, is we're actually making it simple and easy for small business to understand and take advantage of search marketing. To be able to do things like contextual targeting opens up another avenue to allow small businesses to get their message out."

Schultz also said the deal was in the works before former Ask.com CEO Steve Berkowitz left to join Microsoft 15 months ago.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:14 AM | Permalink

April 25, 2007

Ask to Launch Contextual Ad Network

Advertisers buying search ads in Ask.com's Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) program will soon have the option of buying contextually-targeted ads on IAC-owned sites and third-party publishers.

The program will launch at the end of May on several IAC-owned properties, such as Match.com, Ticketmaster, Evite and Citysearch. Ads will also appear on a few trusted publisher sites, most likely starting with some of the 90 publishers that syndicate Ask.com search results and search ads. Mid-sized publishers are able to sign up for the program now, and a self-service platform for smaller publishers is expected later this year.

Ask.com is trying to differentiate its offering from AdSense by offering more control and transparency to both advertisers and publishers. For example, Ask.com will provide publishers with tools to tweak ads displayed on their sites to find a balance between ad relevance and page yield. On the advertiser side, that comes in the form of separate bids for contextual ads and site blocking capabilities.

"We're trying to solve the full equation for advertisers and publishers. Advertisers can expand their existing Ask Sponsored Listings campaigns with the same features, function, and control when they target the content network. For publishers, we've tried to differentiate it from what's out there," said Paul Vallez, head of Ask.com's search marketing product division. "We're going to offer a lot more levers to let publishers manage the monetization of their sites."

The ASL program launched in 2005, and was expanded last fall. It now includes more than 90 publisher partners showing ads from more than 30,000 advertisers. Ads are distributed in search results for sites like Lycos, Infospace, Mamma, Hakia and Eons.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:01 AM | Permalink

February 20, 2007

Ask.com Renews Deal with LookSmart

Ask.com and IAC Advertising Solutions announced today that it would renew its license with LookSmart AdCenter for Publishers through 2009. The LookSmart service provides an auction platform, algorithmic based ad server and reporting engine, as well as an API for agencies and large advertiers. Ask uses LookSmart's AdCenter product as part of its Sponsored Listings program.

The automated open-auction system allows search marketers to purchase, manage and optimize campaigns on Ask.com and its publisher network. Ask.com Sponsored Listings currently process more than five billion queries each month, and supports over 30,000 advertisers bidding on more than 10 million keywords.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 1:33 PM | Permalink

October 3, 2006

Ask.com Sponsored Listings 2.0 Launched

Ask.com launched a version 2.0 of their sponsored listings program yesterday. The new features include a daily budgeting solution, a variable refill account self-service feature, an hourly billable data report, bulk upload enhancements and dashboard reports. More details at the official press release and over at ClickZ.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:31 AM | Permalink

April 18, 2006

Search Ad Providers Gaze into their Crystal Balls

Is search advertising slowing down, or just getting started? What new distribution channels are likely to open up in the coming months? Will traditional ad agencies dominate the business? And just how big a problem is click fraud, anyway? Answers to these and many other questions from executives from Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and IAC in today's SearchDay article, Divining the Future of Search Advertising.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:24 PM | Permalink

March 22, 2006

Ask.com Adds "The Advanced Plan" For Larger Advertisers

I was reviewing the Ask Sponsored Listings page and noticed a new service named "The Advanced Plan" listed on the home page. I have not seen this special program before today. The plan says it is available for those that plan on spending approximate $5,000 or more per month. For those advertisers, they get this special contact form to fill out.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:23 AM | Permalink

December 7, 2005

How Does Ask Jeeves Get Its Advertising Point Across?

Along with the awesome coverage by Barry and Phoenix of SES Chicago, here's another story from the SES Cconference via DMNews.com. This one takes a look at AJ in the ad marketplace.

+ How Ask Jeeves Competes With the Big Guys

So how does Ask Jeeves get across its unique selling point?

Ask Jeeves principally talks about the unique audience that advertisers have access to through its sponsored listings, said James Speer, vice president of marketing and products of search marketing at IAC Advertising Solutions, Oakland, CA. “The comScore numbers point to a 10 percent to 12 percent overlay between Ask Jeeves, AOL, Google, MSN and Yahoo,” Speer said. “What these numbers suggest is that there’s an untapped audience that advertisers can reach through Ask Jeeves’ sponsored listings. It’s not a zero-sum game. So we would not ask people to leave Google or Yahoo. Again, it gets back to the unduplicated audience. What we have heard from advertisers is that they’re looking to scale their programs and, to that end, we provide a perfect solution.”

Posted by Gary Price at 5:12 PM | Permalink

November 21, 2005

MSN Powers UK's Times Online; Ask UK Scales Back Ads

Two brief items from the UK search scene today.

+ Revolution Magazine reports that MSN Search (MSN.co.uk) will power web search on the Times of London web site.

The six-figure deal will mean the Times Online Search the Web toolbar will be MSN branded, and will drive Times Online users to the MSN Search homepage. The placement will be fully integrated into the Times Online site and will run until June 2006.

+ The Netipmerative article: Ask scales back UK paid search ads, reports that Ask UK has done what we saw Jeeves.com do a few months ago and cut back on the number of ads on web results pages.

According to the company, Ask.co.uk will remove Branded Response and Answerlink ad products from the site as of December 31st.

The article also notes that Ask.co.uk has postponed its plans to offer their Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings in the UK.

Finally, Ask.co.uk is planning a "phased reduction" of their UK sales force between now and the end of the year.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:15 PM | Permalink

August 15, 2005

Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings Program Formally Opens

The Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings program that Danny wrote about earlier this month has now formally opened to any advertiser, rather than just existing Ask Jeeves advertisers. You'll find the program here.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:40 PM | Permalink

August 3, 2005

Is the Butler Licensing Some Technology from Looksmart?

Search gumshoe (-: John Battelle has done some url detective work and hypothesizes that Ask Jeeves is licensing some Looksmart technology for their new ad program. Mr. B. includes a small portion of Danny's article from the other day where Paul Gardi from IAC/Interactive says that most of the technology for the new platform was built internally but does say that Ask did license some technology from others. Gardi wouldn't provide any more details but Danny speculates that it might be Miva.com.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:39 PM | Permalink

August 2, 2005

Ask Jeeves Will Cut Number of Paid Listings on Web Results Pages

Ask Jeeves plans to reduce the number of paid links on a search results page from about ten to two or three.

Both the Financial Times and Search Engine Roundtable have info about this and other changes that should be visible on the AJ site by tomorrow.

Bottom Line:

  • Fewer Paid Links on Results Pages
  • Increasing the Amount of Direct Advertising (Jeeves launched their own sponsored listings progam yesterday)
  • Improving the search function in consumer categories such as concert tickets
Back in April, I posted reducing the number of paid ads on results pages by 31%.

I think today's news is a win-win for both AJ and web searchers. One of the most frequent complaints I hear from potential AJ users is that the number of paid ads on results pages make web results page busy and downright difficult to navigate and use. Reducing the number of ads on a results page will, if marketed correctly, hopefully get more people to take a look at what AJ has been up to since things began to improve past five years ago. At the same time fewer ads will make the ads that are visible more noticeable to the searcher.

From my April post: The company's tests show that a smaller number of ads boosts the frequency with which people use the site and aids user retention. As such, Jeeves expects the change to help lift query volumes and ad revenue later in the year.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:15 PM | Permalink

August 1, 2005

New Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings Program Launched

The rumors are over. Ask Jeeves has officially announced a new automated paid listings service today, Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings. It will let anyone purchase ads directly on the Ask Jeeves network rather than having to buy placement via Google or work through an Ask Jeeves account rep. Today's SearchDay article, New Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings Program Lets More Advertisers Buy Direct has more details. The version for SEW members goes into more depth on topics such how Ask Jeeves may cope with the "hassle factor" of convincing advertisers they should go direct, how it may show more than three of its own ads, making use of the "standard" Googe format, issues with potential ad duplication and how Ask says it developed most of the technology internally, though it won't name the third party company also involved -- and isn't worried that Yahoo might seek a patent infringement claim on paid listings. Want to discuss? Join our forum thread, New Ask Jeeves Paid Listings Program.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:13 AM | Permalink

July 28, 2005

More Details On New Ask Jeeves Paid Listings Program

Ask Jeeves To Launch Own Search-Ad Sales Program from Dow Jones spills more beans about Ask Jeeves launching an expanded paid listings service of its own next Monday, which we've blogged earlier. You'll be able to buy the top three links directly from Ask as long as they are going to make Ask more money, advertisers familiar with the program say. Want to discuss or comment? Visit our forum thread, New Ask Jeeves Paid Listings Program.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:26 AM | Permalink

July 27, 2005

New Ask Jeeves Paid Listings Program Said To Come August 1

Rumors that Ask Jeeves is to roll out a new version of its own paid listings program came up earlier this month but now come again accompanied by a date -- August 1. Threadwatch spotted Adrants reporting being tipped off to this and MediaPost in Ask Jeeves Reportedly Gearing Up Paid Search Platform reports hearing the same.

Want to discuss or comment? Visit our forum thread, New Ask Jeeves Paid Listings Program.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:10 AM | Permalink

July 7, 2005

Ask Jeeves: Barry Diller Ponders Leaving Google Ad Network

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by Gary Price at 7:32 PM | Permalink

May 26, 2005

BitTorrent Search Opens; Ask Jeeves Ads There Actually From Google

The BitTorrent search engine that Wired reported on Monday is now live on the BitTorrent home page and at search.bittorent.com.

When I ran a couple of searches this morning, it was very very slow. This is likely due to the amount of publicity the engine has been receiving. Or maybe it's all the people looking for the latest Star Wars movie. This search brings back some likely hits for that.

On a related note, Wired is now reporting that the FBI has launched the "first criminal law enforcement action against BitTorrent users" on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the US Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon Dudas spoke at a sixth-grade graduation ceremony in Utah and warned the students:

"Illegally copying computer games, DVDs and other products is just as wrong as stealing these items from the store," Dudas said. "Copying and downloading Star Wars video games and movies is not okay -- it's breaking the law because it is stealing someone else's property. It's important that people -- especially children -- show respect for others' property, whether it's your next door neighbor, your classmate or a company that's far, far away."

Meanwhile, the mystery of what type of ads Ask was going to provide is cleared up. BitTorrent Search is carrying ads from Google, from what we can tell. In other words, Ask gets most of its keyword-targeted ads through a partnership with Google. With BitTorrent, it's simply resyndicating these ads.

Postscript: I tried BitTorrent search again and its speed has greatly improved.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:02 AM | Permalink

May 23, 2005

BitTorrent Plans to Launch Search Engine & Carry Ask Jeeves Ads

While several earch tools exist to find BitTorrent material (movies, music, software and other files), the service itself has not offered its own search tool. That's about to change as BitTorrent launches its own advertising-supported search engine in the next two weeks.

Sponsored links will come from Ask Jeeves (apparently the Premier Listings that Ask sells directly, rather than the paid listing that it carries from Google).

BitTorrent speeds internet file transfers by shifting the bandwidth burden off the publisher, and distributing it among users downloading the file: Everyone downloading a file over BitTorrent is unobtrusively uploading it to other users at the same time so that large, popular files actually move at a faster rate than obscure ones.

The new search engine takes that dynamic into account. It resembles Google in operation, with a simple interface and results ranked by an automated process. But unlike a general web search, the BitTorrent web crawler interacts with each torrent behind the scenes to determine the number of nodes downloading and uploading through it. That lets the search engine order its results by the throughput of each torrent.

More in the Wired News article: Next for BitTorrent: Search. It also discusses the many copyright issues that BitTorrent might face as the service becomes more well-known and material becomes even easier to access.

"I think the search engine itself shouldn't be illegal, but I think [founder Bram](Cohen) will find himself inundated with notices of infringing material," says [Stanford Law School Professor Mark] Lemley. "He may find over time that his full-time job is turning off links." Moreover, being right might not be enough to keep Cohen and BitTorrent clear of the working end of a lawsuit. "I would be very surprised if he didn't get sued, because they've gone after a number of people who have much less connection to infringement," says Lemley.

Postscript: Prospect of Search Ads on P2P Site Rattle SEMs from ClickZ has a few more details from Ask and comments from search marketers on source exclusion.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:34 AM | Permalink

April 28, 2005

Ask Jeeves Reports Earnings; CEO Comments on Improving User Experience By Reducing Number of Ads on Results Pages

AJ reported their Q1 earnings last night:

+ Q1 2005 net income of $ 18.1 million, or 26 cents a share vs. $13.4 million, or 23 cents a share, in Q1 2004.

+ Revenue more than doubled to $94.9 million from $39.2 million in the year- earlier period. Results for the recent quarter included the acquisition of Interactive Search Holdings Inc., a deal Ask Jeeves closed in May 2004.

+ Google advertising accounted for 70% of Ask Jeeves' revenue.

+ IAC acquisition will close in late Q2 or early Q3.

The DJ article: Ask Jeeves CEO: IAC Purchase Is Important Strategically, has a couple of comments from AJ CEO Steve Berkowitz including one about AJ reducing the number of ads on web results pages.

"We believe this is an important strategic move for Ask Jeeves," he said. " We're joining a company [IAC] with traffic, content and expertise in building brands." Putting Jeeves' search box on IAC's Web properties, which include Expedia, CitySearch, Ticketmaster and Match.com, should significantly boost search traffic, brand awareness and search-ad inventory, Berkowitz said. "That's a quick win," he said in an interview following the call. Berkowitz said that, in a bid to improve the user experience with the search engine, the company began to implement a program in early April to reduce by 31% the number of ads it shows at the top of its results pages. The company's tests show that a smaller number of ads boosts the frequency with which people use the site and aids user retention. As such, Jeeves expects the change to help lift query volumes and ad revenue later in the year.

Want to discuss? Join our forum thread, Ask Jeeves to Reduce Paid Ads.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:45 AM | Permalink

March 23, 2005

Ads On Ask & Could Paid Listings Take Prime Position?

In The Search Interface Of The Future from MediaPost, David Berkowitz looks at future history, envisioning a move where Ask Jeeves puts paid listings in the prime left-hand column of results, with unpaid results relegated to the less noticed right hand side. An uproar ("Boycott The Butler") ensues, but Ask -- to some degree like GoTo back in 1998 -- holds its ground. Traffic survives, and revenues skyrocket. Others eventually follow, but then a crash happens when consumers ultimately train themselves to still seek out the "natural" results wherever they are.

It's a funny story, well worth a read, but it's not necessarily fiction. Last year, I wrote about how Yahoo thought surviving the uproar over paid inclusion was worthwhile because it allowed it to monetize that important left-column better: The Paid Inclusion Dinosaur. I also wrote in the same article how Ask Jeeves was putting up to 10 paid listings in the left column of its results, pushing the "natural" results well to the bottom.

Ask is still doing that. Search for dvd players, for example, and it's 10 paid listings you get. Anything deemed highly commercial is likely to go up to this maximum amount, if there are that many ads available. But a search for repetitive strain injury prevention isn't as commercial, so the ads are fewer.

Meanwhile, as our forum threads The Little Engine That Could - Part II and Ask Jeeves is One Brand - Teoma Who? discussed, we even had a situation recently where Firefox users were seeing fewer ads than Internet Explorer users, something that since has seemed to stop.

Speculation was that this was a way Ask was trying to present a more "pure" face to a potentially savvier Firefox audience while shoving ads down the throats of all those dumb IE users :)

I emailed with Ask Jeeves senior vice president of search properties Jim Lanzone about this when the topic was heating up at the end of February, and here's what he sent:

We have been trying to work our way to a better balance between the user experience and monetization. What you are seeing are tests we're running of different configurations of the results page. Firefox users are easily segmented in terms of giving them a test configuration, and yes, that configuration has fewer ads. The majority of users are receiving the current "normal" results page, which takes what Google gives us, up to 10 results in highly commercial categories.

In some cases, more ads might be useful. Ads can be relevant. But it can also be annoying to get too many, if the natural results turnout to have the better answers you need. Ask has indeed been leading the way in trying to get the balance right. If it does so, Berkowitz's speculation of higher revenue is assured. And if it and the others fail, they'll see a collapse, as well

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:48 AM | Permalink | TrackBack

October 18, 2004

Ask Jeeves Launches New Sales Division

Ask Jeeves let's us know about the launch of AJinteractive, a new U.S. advertising products and sales division that integrates the AJ and Interactive Search Holdings sales and marketing teams. Jeeves acquired ISH in March.

You can learn more about AJinteractive in this news release, on their web site and in this Clickz article.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack