Leading off with a blog entry at the Ask.com blog, named What Should We Do? Ask.com asked the blog readers about launching something around April 1, does it make sense to do it, if it may be perceived as a joke. Of course, they released it, "due to popular demand." Ask.com releases for the first time, a full press release via its blog, with the title Ask.com Introduces RhymeRank™.
Tonight at 6PM (PST), to be released in "Gamma mode" at Ask.com is RhymeRank, "Cutting Edge Technology Provides Phaster and Phresher Related Search Results."
Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.The joke press release: Ask.com Introduces RhymeRank™
Cutting Edge Technology Provides Phaster and Phresher Related Search Results
Oakland, CA, April 1, 2006 – Ask.com announced today the introduction of RhymeRank, an innovative search technology capable of producing related search results that rhyme with a searcher’s original query. The new product is located on the right-hand side of the Ask search results page, under the heading, “Rhyme Your Search.”
“This will go down as the day the momentum in the search wars shifted to Ask.com,” said Jim Lanzone, General Manager of Ask U.S. “When combined with our site’s already-powerful “Narrow Your Search” and “Expand Your Search” capabilities, “Rhyme Your Search” sets Ask.com apart with the unprecedented ability to suggest phat new ideas for your search.”
RhymeRank was developed at a top-secret laboratory near Ask’s headquarters in Oakland, California. It is based upon the educational theory that people commit information to memory more effectively when it is phonetically consistent. Understanding this, Ask hired dozens of experts to develop algorithms capable of producing the best and most irrelevant rhymes. For example, for the query, “Weight Watchers® Rewards”, Ask.com’s RhymeRank will suggest the following alternative searches:
Rhyme Your Search mongolian hordes the history of fords pictures of fjords maternity wards create free message boards names of drug lords toward or towards chart of guitar cords bill cosby awards roman legions swords
“Web 3.0 is clearly upon us,” noted John Battelle, author of The Search, and one of the world’s leading experts on the search industry. “RhymeRank smartly builds upon the recent relaunch of Ask.com. This is a BIG DEAL and is the kind of innovation that demands Ask’s rivals stand up and take notice. Or to sit on the sidelines in the position of the lotus.”
“Aspiring rappers and poets are a huge, untapped market,” said lead engineer Keith Hogan. “Someone will win a Grammy or Pulitzer one day using this product. Or, at the very least, an Open Mic Night.”
