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Avatar Posted By: kphilbin 183 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://searchenginewatch.com)
Category: Other Search Marketing
Don't count Ask.com out yet. Although recent blogs have discussed the eventual end to this engine, they have a core strength in delivering search results that their users like to see. Ask delivers a unique strategy that is 'less about targeting any one demographic group than it is about targeting the kinds of searches those users are doing'.
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from kevinheisler 183 days ago # - show/hide this comment
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Ask.com not in Deadpool. Reports of Ask demise greatly exaggerated? Get the facts here.

Excellent reporting from our managing editor, Kevin Newcomb. And yes, I'm biased. :-)

from dannysullivan 183 days ago #
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Well, get the corporate PR spin. Unless you always believe whatever the PR folks tell you, Kevin, them's ain't facts.

It's nice to see a contrarian piece when virtually all the rest of us covering the space are nodding our heads that Ask is dead as a competitor to Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. But no, when it says this:

"Search bloggers immediately began to run with it, and took no time in rushing to judgment to declare the death of Ask.com."

It's kind of unfair, like just because Ask says something, we have to believe it. We don't. We can actually make our own decisions on what that company's going to do -- and be able to do -- based on how it acts, what it says and how it moves. Me, I see it as rapidly out of the game.

Two days ago, they're all about targeting married women and bailing on the West Coast digerati, much less a general audience. After all the bad attention, oh, surprise, some backspin. Tell you what. $100 bucks says you won't be caring about Ask this time next year, much less writing much about them.

from KevinNewcomb 183 days ago #
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Hi Danny,

Certainly Ask is spinning this in some fashion. But I have a problem with the fact that so many people wrote as "fact" that Ask was abandoning search and becoming a women's site, based on one or two mainstream news stories that may or may not have told the whole story.

I'm especially not trying to say that you don't know what you're talking about. That would be ludicrous. Obviously you've been following the space longer than anyone, and you may very well be seeing something unfold at an early stage that I'm not. But from what I could tell of your story and others, no one called Ask to get their side of the story.

I don't know how much of the published articles were said by Jim Safka, what was editorialized or misinterpreted by the reporter, or spun by the AP's editor. I think on something like this, it only makes sense to go to the source and find out yourself, and make your own judgments.

I'm not saying that Nicholas' version is entirely "fact" either. They certainly did lay off some key search folks, and they are switching strategies mid-stream, which doesn't always bode well. But his explanation does make sense. If you know you have people coming to your site looking for certain things, it's a good idea to give them what they're looking for.

That said, everyone is welcome to look at Ask.com's side and still say that Ask is dead. My goal was to present another side to the conversation, so people could make their own decisions.

Kevin


from dannysullivan 183 days ago #
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Kevin, you assume that we or others are only writing about what we read, rather than having our own independent sources. That's not the case :)

I do think it's great you talked with Ask and got their spin post announcement. Seriously, I do. But fact is, the new Ask CEO comes in, makes no effort to reach any of the people who actually cover search, disses a ton of them as "digerati" or "elite" and pretty much demonstrates to many of us that it's game over for Ask. Because that's not how you behave in a space when you're seriously going after Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. That demonstrates pretty much that you have no clue what you're doing. You can't even get the messaging right. Geez. This isn't a race where you can be that clueless. Blunt, but there it is.

Me, when I'm looking at what Ask is doing, I'm also going back and thinking of all the similar things I would hear before Excite went belly-up, before Go threw in the towel, before NBCi bit the dust, before AltaVista went into one if its upteenmillion redesigns and repositionings, before LookSmart tried to put the right spin on being dumped by Microsoft. And when you have that perspective, this is a no brainer. Ask is done as an independent, unique and important voice challenging GYM. For me, it's as clear as day -- and I'm not alone.

Ask can say what they want, and Nicholas is a nice guy. If I see them standing in a year, bake the crow, and I'll merrily eat it.

from Aussiewebmaster 183 days ago #
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I have to agree with Danny here on the signs of death - I was just thinking when the woman's angle came out that it all sounded like LookSmart's "family" search engine spin.

Time will tell how it goes... me I want them to defrost Jeeves.... women need a good man to ask questions of... or so Dax would tell me.

from kphilbin 183 days ago #
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Hi All,

The reason I was most interested in Kevin's article is for the same issue he brings up here - the' fact' that Ask is out may not be a certainty.  A recent Forbes.com article (Feb 7) cited the IAC losses as a result of their 'online home-lending business, while some of IAC's other businesses, such as Ticketmaster and search engine Ask.com, posted improvements'.

The strategy seems to break their focuses up to 5 different companies each with its own focus in order to streamline their success and failures accordingly (although there seems to be a lot of dispute there as well).  Another article from Rueters on 2/29 stated that claim that Ask is getting rid of their search technology is false. 

Overall, I think isolating Ask.com search into its own entity will allow us to see what it can really do.  Do I think Ask will overtake Google or Yahoo in the near future?  No, but they do offer a different appeal in the SE world and I don't think we will see the Teoma technology disappear.

The big issue I have is the strength of coverage the 'Ask is dead' sentiment is getting, while the alternative articles are getting little play.  I agree - it is up to everyone to come to their own conclusions, but it appears Jim Safka has his work cut out for him either way.

-Kristin


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