Ask.com Archives

Yesterday was Mother's Day and the search engines and search industry blogs/forums had special themes and logos up for the day. Here is a compilation of the logos I found:

Google:

Yahoo (Flash):

Dogpile:

Ask.com

Cre8asite Forums

Search Engine Roundtable

Plus today, Google has a special logo on Google.co.uk for Florence Nightingale:

To view last years Mother's Day logos from the search engine industry, click here. Also, Gary Price has his quick Mother's Day facts.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums, Search Engine Roundtable Forums, and DigitalPoint Forums.

Yesterday afternoon I got word that IAC laid off 8% of the Ask.com workforce and I wrote a blog post named IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine. Let me summarize what IAC told the press.

(1) They laid off 40 people, which was about 8% of Ask.com
(2) They are refocusing the search engine on women over 30
(3) They will be fine tuning the engine to answer questions on health and entertainment matters

That is what I got from what the IAC PR team was feeding the media.

I am not blind, we the search community are not blind, to many of us this means they killed the search engine.

If you are going to cut 8% of a tiny workforce, how do you expect to compete against Google or Yahoo or Microsoft - you can't. If you are going to focus your engine in a niche of searchers who are women over 30 who search on health and entertainment, how are you going to compete in the search space as an innovator - you won't. If you are going to alienate "digerati" or "West Coast elite" how are you going to compete against Google - you can't and won't.

Ask.com is no longer an innovator that is what this IAC announcement tells me. Ask.com is not to blame, it is obviously IAC who decided that although they were committed to a long term strategy in competing as a serious player in the search space - 1.5 years is long term enough for them and they have raised the white flag and said they are out.

Diller pulls the the soul out of Ask.com by removing Lanzone, he then pulls the smarts out of Ask.com by removing Gary Price and then pulls the will out of Ask.com by cutting 8% of the team. Heck, I even spotted early signs of Ask using Google search results, which I believe to be true.

Want to read a touching and heart-wrenching blog post from an Ask.com evangelist who feels betrayed? Go over and read Lisa Barone's post and see how many of the search community feels.

I’m heartbroken over the loss of an engine I loved and intensely angry at Barry Diller, the man who never understood the gem he had in his hand, and in return, threw it away when it wasn’t making money as fast as he wanted it to. This was a decision based on money, not about users, not about search, not about anything other than Barry Diller’s bottom line.

Danny Sullivan's post Obit: A West Coast Digerati Deadpools Ask.com at Search Engine Land tells Ask.com "you're dead." Danny does an excellent job showing us the reason he is the industry leader by going back to history and showing why Ask.com is truly now dead. Danny ends with this:

I won't cry for you much, Ask. I know you're in a different place now. I know what makes sense to me and many others doesn't make sense for you. But I hope you'll understand when I and the many others you've dismissed as the "digerati" aren't counting you in the search game any longer. That's because we know in our hearts you're gone, even if you protest that it's not so.

Let's dig into the community reaction. We have threads at Sphinn, Cre8asite Forums and WebmasterWorld and here are some select quotes from those threads:

The little search engine that could -- no more.

Now that quote makes me so upset, since I was behind Ask.com since 2004. I called them, and I believe I was the first to call them this, The Little Search Engine That Could.

This is such a shocker, I really had hope for Ask. It seemed like they had such a good product, they just had to hang in there - but finances aren't that forgiving.

I was really hoping that Ask would be the David that would slay Goliath (or at least make dent in Goliath's armor).

There is more but I will spare you. Here is a roundup of blog posts and news stories on the topic:

• All Things Must Pass; Moving On from Ask.com, Gary Price
• IAC's Ask.com to Cut 8% of Staff, Wall Street Journal
• IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine, Search Engine Land
• Ask.com Cuts 40 Jobs, Gary Price Among Those Laid Off, Search Engine Journal
• Goodbye Ask.com: A Brand Evangelist Hangs It Up, BruceClay Blog
• Ask Laying off Workers, Search?, Marketing Pilgrim
• IAC Retooling Ask, Cutting 40, Silicon Valley Insider
• Ask.com Follows Jeeves Into Exile, WebProNews
• Ask.com search site to cut jobs, realign strategy, Reuters
• Ask.com to Cut 8%, Revamp Search Plans, Search Engine Watch
• Ask.com’s Safka: 40 Jobs Cuts; ‘Reevaluating’ Product; Ditching The ‘Digerati’, paidContent.org
• Ask.com: Innovation doesn’t always pan out, Between the Lines
• Ask.com Does About Face, Concentrates On Women, Profy
• Ask.com scales back in makeover, AP
• Ask.com to Become Women’s Site, Google Blogoscoped
• Ask Abandons General Search Engine Strategy, ResearchBuzz
• Ask.com to focus on narrower market, BigMouthMedia
• Apparently ASK Doesn't Always Have the Right Answer, StepForth
• RIP Ask.com?, Greg Sterling
• Ask.com is Dead, Metamend
• Obit: A West Coast Digerati Deadpools Ask.com, Search Engine Land

I plan on updating this post as I find more stories that I can add. Feel free to comment below with additional stories and I will try to add it to the main article.

I just found a Flickr stream of photos from Ask.com employees and ex-employees bidding farewell. Here is a Flickr slideshow of the people who have touched all of our hearts and that we will all miss deeply (including you Patrick). Update, I just found out these pictures are from two weeks ago, bidding farewell to Michael Ferguson who left Ask.com after working there since 1995.

Overall, I am extremely disappointed to say the least. This is the end of Ask.com, in my opinion.

Forum discussion at Sphinn, Cre8asite Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Update: Added Danny's article above and also wanted to note that Barry Diller may be on his way out, too fitting.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one member spotting Google search results in the Ask.com web search results. textex, who has been a WebmasterWorld member since 2003 and I personally find to be a trusted forum informant said last night:

I am seeing Google results on Ask right now!

Unfortunately, he decided to quickly clear his cookies and reproduce the same results. When he cleared his cookies, he was no longer able to see it. He does not want to publicize the keyword phrase he used but he did say it did happen. I do believe him, even though the Ask.com PR team says it is not happening (not that I think they are lying, I just don't think they know.)

If you guys want to help out, please conduct some random searches on Ask.com and see if any of them match the Google search results. Make sure when searching in Google to be logged out and personalized search off. Also, when searching in Ask.com, I would test it in Internet Explorer on a PC. If you do see that the results match, please contact me at barry.schwartz AT gmail.com, attach a screen capture of the results, the browser type and version and your OS. I seriously want to have these cases documented if possible, it is one thing to go by someone's word and another thing to have a screen capture.

Why is this so important? Most of you know by now that IAC cut 8% of Ask.com and set out a new strategy for Ask.com, a strategy that in my opinion will kill the search engine as we know it today. I will write on this topic a little later, but removing Jim Lanzone, now Gary Price and 8% of Ask.com and then telling us they will focus on building out an engine for women who ask questions on health and entertainment - well - how can we take them as a serious Google competitor anymore, we can't.

Again, if you can please run some tests between Ask.com and Google and see if anything matches, it would be appreciated. This can be the first signs of proof that Ask.com is really thinking about dropping the search engine in favor for a lower cost syndication service with Google. This scenario is very possible, as paidContent.org suggests.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: Here is my post on Ask.com's announcement: Search Community Reaction to Ask.com New Search Strategy.

Friday afternoon I reported at Search Engine Land on a Silicon Valley Insider report that IAC was going to force Ask.com to drop Teoma and the Teoma team and syndicate Google's search service. They would either sell of Teoma or drop the whole thing in favor for Google's search service.

The tip came from a solid source, said Silicon Valley Insider. However, Reuters said this is not the case and they heard otherwise. I personally sent in a request with Ask.com's PR team and have heard nothing back since Friday - is it too much to decline this is happening?

In any event, I feel long time supports of Ask.com are now losing patience. Not on a financial level, like Diller and company are but on a social level. The little engine that could seems to not be trying anymore. By adding more ads above the organic results, it seems like Ask.com is going back to the Jeeves days.

Scanning the forum threads at Sphinn, Cre8asite Forums and WebmasterWorld and seeing posts like these:

Glad I sold my IACI stock last month.

I've always had a great affection for Ask/Teoma for its technical competence. Unfortunately they have not been the focus of the accountant-based IAC money machine. So it's not surprising to see this happening. If only the money-making machine worked as well as the Ask/Teoma engine.

It just makes me feel that the grassroot'ers, us, who have been supporting Ask.com through thick and thin are now giving up. Do I blame anyone? No. Diller removed the soul of Ask.com a couple months back and where does that leave Ask? I always thought Diller came in to invest for several years, understanding it would not be cheap. But I guess the pressure got to him and he needs to make changes now, even though Diller said himself, and I quote our SES Keynote coverage:

You need to think about the long run. Google doesn't spend a nickel on marketing. Barry said we will not leave it by word of mouth. Ask is coming in after the category has been popularized. So they need to do every single thing they can think of to market Ask. But the bottom line is the differentiated features. Ask is concentrating on everyday search, whereas others are working on different products. People are going to say, yes I will use it or not.

Will Ask.com stop focusing on search and just became a syndication service. I still hope not, but I hope less these days.

Forum discussion at Sphinn, Cre8asite Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Postscript: Ask.com got back to me on Monday saying these rumors are false. They said that the "bottom line" is that the rumors are "just flat-out not true." Adding that "our Teoma technology will continue to power search engine results on Ask.com. That's really all there is to it."

Personally, I still think there is something to the rumors.

Barry has posted at Search Engine Land that Ask.com is adding Compete stats to its Binocular site preview feature.

When you perform a search, you see binoculars on the side of the page which shows a page preview. The second tab is your Compete statistics. An example screenshot is shown below:

Very interesting -- and very cool for Ask and Compete.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google & Yahoo typically do not show off any special logo for President's Day, which is today. But Ask.com and Dogpile are both showing off special logos and themes for the day.

Here is Ask.com:

Yes, that is Mount Rushmore - more details at ask.com/web?q=Rushmore.

And DogPile goes cute again:

Got to love DogPile!

Update: Here is our theme:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

On January 7th, we asked you to vote on the most improved PPC program of 2007. Your votes are now all in and I wanted to share the 76 responses.

Overall, most of you felt Yahoo Search Marketing was the most improved PPC program of 2007. Yahoo launched Panama, the code name of their new PPC program, in October 2006 but really didn't start having Overture account (the old PPC system) migrated for a few months after that. Yahoo, in 2007, began also migrating the new system worldwide. Yahoo's new PPC system is a total overhaul of the old Overture system, and that is why most feel it is the most improved.

Here are the raw results:

As you can see, Google came in a fairly close second. Google has made several significant upgrades to their AdWords system, including dozens of quality score updates, smart pricing, demographic bidding and much much more.

Thank you for taking the poll.

Continued forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Ask.com announced the launch of a feature I have been waiting for since Ask 3D launched. You can now upload your own "skins" to be used as your personal background for the Ask.com home page.

The Ask.com Blog explains exactly how to do it, so follow the directions there.

Here is my theme:

Very cool!

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Vunet.com reports that Ask.com has hired a former Google executive, Cesar Mascaraque, as the company's new European managing director.

In a statement, Mascaraque said that he's very excited to join as Ask is the fastest growing search engine.

Forum members, obviously, have a problem with that perception, as Hitwise shows that Ask.com shares haven't grown significantly over the past few months. Perhaps, though, things are about t change.

Mascaraque was also quoted as saying "I have watched the brand set itself apart from competitors by pioneering new products and offering innovative ways of bringing search to users."

And a forum member agrees with that sentiment:

Ask does have an interesting media blitz going on and have been for the past 12 months or so. Between the Unibomber Billboards and the TV Commercials, the Ask Brand is getting out there.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Last night I reported Jim Safka To Replace Jim Lanzone As CEO Of Ask.com at Search Engine Land. In short, Jim Lanzone, who became Ask.com's CEO in August of 2006, to step up when Steve Berkowitz left to go to Microsoft, has been replaced by one of Diller's guys, Jim Safka. I hear very good things about Safka, he was previously the CEO of Match.com and he will retain his job at as CEO of Primal Ventures.

But the SEO/SEM community was a bit taken back by the shocking news. Jim Lanzone has been such an important part of Ask.com, since joining in the company in 2001 as Vice President of Product Management. He drove and lead the company for a long time. But more importantly, Jim Lanzone had a special connection with the SEM community, a connection that I feel no other CEO at any other search engine company had.

Barry Diller said it himself:

Jim Lanzone was the principal executive responsible for Ask.com's turnaround over the last two years. His passion for innovation and his every day dedication to the business and its people have been everything anyone could ask for. He is a superb executive and leader and I'm hopeful we can be associated in the future.

I don't know who left who. I just can't see Jim Lanzone leaving Ask, I just can't see it. It is just a shame.

A Sphinn thread shares some of the thoughts we had about Jim Lanzone and how much we will miss him. I personally felt he was the soul of Ask.com and accounted for a lot of the soul of the search industry.

Lisa Barone said:

He brought an amazing amount of energy and excitement to my favorite little search engine. It was always fun to see his face light up when you got him talking about what Ask was up to or their latest round of TV commercials.

More on those commercials over here.

Barry Welford said:

Oh dear. I hoped that Diller was focusing on ASK since I thing that is the sole horse that should drive the IAC growth. The quote from the article isn't at all encouraging:

In his statement, Diller said: "These changes are intended to strengthen and streamline the operating structure at IAC, both leading up to our intended spin-offs, and beyond."

Giving the glowing description of Jim Lanzone given by Diller, this presumably means there was a fundamental difference on strategic thinking here. That really upsets me. I was seeing ASK as the David to Google's Goliath.

Yes, it scares me too. Will Diller start cutting costs and just try to monetize the engine, leaving relevancy to Google and others?

Kevin Heisler said:

Lanzone deserves Diller's kudos. He launched the blended search innovations that have transformed the industry.

Jim - we wish you much success in your new ventures. You will always be missed and we hope you stay connected with us in the search industry. We know that your new position as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Venture Capital firm, Redpoint Ventures may lead to you coming back into the search space - and that give us all hope!

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

According to numerous reports, including a post at Search Engine Land, if you've advertised on Ask.com between August 2005 and now, you're entitled to reimbursement for any suspected invalid clicks. Those who are entitled to the settlement money will be getting it in the form of advertising (no checks or cash, sorry!)

If you've been affected, your claim must be submitted by February 2, 2008.

A website has been set up for more information about filing the claim. A lot of people find the poor writing style on the site "super fishy," so if it helps, perhaps you'd be interested in reading the legal note that Scott Hendison posted on his blog.

This isn't a new thing for search engines. Google did the same thing in 2006, and so did Yahoo a few months later.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Earlier this week, we reported that Ask.com Crawler Inserting Url-Encoded Spaces in URLs Causing 404 Errors. In short, Ask.com's crawlers were crawling badly formed URLs, causing tons of 404 errors in web server log files.

Vivek Pathak, Ask.com's Infrastructure Product Manager, replied to the WebmasterWorld thread saying Ask.com has fixed the issue.

We did experience a data error which caused us to crawl badly-formed urls from a small number of sites. We identified the issue and corrected it on Dec 29th. Thanks for flagging and please let us know if you see any further problems.

Webmasters in the forum have confirmed that they are no longer seeing 404 errors produced by Ask.com's spiders (Teoma).

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread is reporting several webmasters noticing that Ask.com's crawler has recently been generating tons of 404 (file not found) errors on their sites. The issue appears to stem from Ask.com auto inserting URL-Encoded spaces into the URL. URL-encoded spaces are those %20 signs you may find in URLs.

The specific crawler called out is crawler100.ask.com. Reports say that this has been going on for two weeks now.

Forum moderator, jdMorgan, offered up a mod_rewrite technique to force the Ask.com bot to obtain the correct URL and not a %20 URL. So if you are noticing this issue as well, check out the thread and try implementing jdMorgan's solution.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I wrote a long post on the launch of AskEraser at Search Engine Land, titled, Ask.com Launches AskEraser Giving Searches Ability To Search Anonymously. But honestly, if you think about it, AskEraser does not erase data, it is a bad name.

AskEraser just prevents data from being written to Ask.com's servers. It is not like data is being written and then Ask is erasing the data. It is simply not being written in the first place. So maybe Ask.com should rename the tool to something else?

Anyway, if you go to Ask.com, you should see a link to AskEraser. When activated, it won't store data such as IP address, User ID, Session ID, and the complete query text in their databases, cookies or log files for that search. If you turn it off, it will store that data. If you turn it on, you won't get Ask personalized results.

Here is what it looks like:

The FAQ is at this page and again, I have a large walk through at Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I have been watching a thread started by Barry W. at Cre8asite forums named Blogsearch, Google's Neglected Property back about a month or so ago. Since then, I have been trying to find a good blog search engine to use on a daily basis.

Personally and professionally, I dropped all my subscriptions to blog search engine searches. The results were 95% spam and simply wasted my time. I stuck with RSS News searches and that worked for me. But I was pretty sure I was missing something by not being 100% plugged into the blogosphere. So that thread at Cre8asite Forums sprung my interest.

Recently Read/Write Web asked So Which Blog Search Engine Do You Use? and I saw Steve Rubel twit that he uses "Bloglines/Ask a lot" for blog search. So I have been giving it a try and so has Barry W.

A new Cre8asite Forums thread has early positive feedback from folks. I have resubscribed to my RSS searches to the blogosphere and I feel more plugged in. The results are actually fairly good and I don't feel like I am wasting my time with blog search anymore. Barry W. said:

I'm really finding it excellent. For any item found you can immediately subscribe to the RSS feed or you can post it to some of the more popular social media sites.

So why not give Ask.com blog search a deeper try?

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Forum members are noticing a bit of a change in terms of presentation for Google Local results. One member was a bit disgruntled by the results presented when he performed a local search and found 10 links -- without the necessary map:

I am no longer seening a map and now I get the "top ten local results" instead of the 3 links and the map.

That observation piqued another response from someone who watches TV:

I have seen some commercials for Ask and think that Google needs to do more

(Really, now, beyond watching the tube, you should also be using Ask.com. Their local results rock!)

I can't reproduce the 10-link result and still see the standard map plus three links, but my guess is that Google is testing this feature out and looking for feedback. There's your feedback, Google. I still say that Ask.com works pretty darn well on the local front, though.

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.

IAC, the parent company of Ask.com, is breaking up into 5 different publicly traded companies: IAC (which will include Ask, Bloglines, and a number of other web properties), HSN, Ticketmaster, Interval International, and LendingTree.

And so Ask.com will now stand a little more on its own, but it can't be completely without IAC since Ask.com helped IAC get a 40% increase of media revenue in Q3 of 2007.

Forum members find this interesting. Now, there is more of a focus within the five groups:

Interesting change. They had assembled a wide ranging hodge podge of companies with very few synergies amongst them.

But 5 publicly traded companies? That's a lot to keep track of, another says.

Ask.com, therefore, is not completely on its own, but now IAC can focus its energy on making Ask even better. And we love that.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports seeing a small Ask.com algorithm and index update.

I personally took a look at my traffic for this site and compared this past week to the week before and saw a 30%+ increase in search traffic from Ask.com. Does that mean there was an update? Not necessarily. But there seems to be some suggestions of some type of update over at Ask.com.

The last time we reported an Ask.com update was in August.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

A WebmasterWorld thread mentions noticing the new Ask.com "Instant Getification" commercials that start of with a message that reads, "Can Your Search Engine Do This?"

First, let's all watch one of the commercials:

As you can see, they are simple and show a compare and contrast between a "typical" search engine and what Ask.com can offer.

I personally like the commercials, but a WebmasterWorld thread has a member who feels Ask.com is knocking on Google.

The new ad shows someone searching for music and looks like you can demo songs / see popular tracks and also a mouse over preview etc.

Then it shows google serps (looking bland) with no sound or anything and goes "Does yours do this?"

I would think google would have something to say about that.

Technically, they are not showing Google's search results, they are showing a white labeled engine. I am with martinibuster, who said:

Those were great ads. I loved it. Ask made it's point elegantly. Reminded me of the Apple ads, except it wasn't exagerrated nor featured smug people.

Good job on your ads Ask.com! We asked in the past, Is Ask.com's "The Algorithm" Campaign Really Working? I hope these do.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Danny Sullivan is back in the US for a bunch of SMX conferences, and in California, he spotted this very ironic sight:

Forum members are cracking up:

It is a Huge Google Billboard over a tiny ask.com billboard!

Thanks, Danny, for the laugh. :)

(Others, however, just don't get the Ask.com billboard at all. The comments on the Digg submission if you sort by most Diggs reflect that sentiment.)

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

A brand new beta version of Bloglines has been launched this week, and it features a great amount of AJAX and customization features.

The key features in this new beta include:

A Customizable Start Page: You can now drag and drop desired pages to your start page so that you can get a quick glance of the stories from your favorite feeds.

When you mouse over a particular title on your feed, you can see an excerpt of the feed or summary.

Three different viewing options: You now can view your feeds in a standard full feed view, which the old Bloglines version is based off. You can also view only headlines in quick feed view, or you can view the feeds in a three-pane view which combines full feeds and quick feeds in a split pane.

Here's the standard full-feed view that most of us are used to:

But here's a quick feed view which looks very similar to the customized start page. However, this is only for a particular folder that I have selected.

This is what it looks like when you opt-in for a 3-pane view. It kind of reminds me of the way I set up my email.

I like it.

Drag and Drop Feeds for Easy Organization. And finally, for someone like me who subscribes to over 180 feeds, a drag and drop feature is available so that I can organize my feeds better. I really needed this and now it's here.

So far, the direction of Bloglines is promising. The only caveat forum members and I have noticed noticed is that it's not easy anymore to mark feeds as read unless you mouseover them or scroll into the blogs. I can see that being an issue that the Ask team will address, however, so let's give it some time. :)

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.

The Times Online in the UK interviewed Jim Lanzone, chief executive of Ask.com. Asked about Google, Lanzone has an interesting reaction to his competition.

Instead, asked what it's like taking on the most formidable website on the planet, he breaks into the grin for which West Coast entrepreneurs are famed, and says: "I think it's tasty."

Meanwhile, he's still working to build up the Ask.com brand.

We have over 50 million users worldwide. We're one of the top web properties. It would be a mistake for us to say we want ten out of ten Google users to switch over. One in ten would be a good start, though. ... We think there will be a slice that prefer the Ask experience.

You've got to hand it to him. He's in a difficult place. WebmasterWorld members think so too.

Lanzone is selling a turkey; nothing wrong with that, except that he's standing at the caviar counter.

In fact, reading the whole interview, I'm not convinced he's on the same planet as the rest of us.

A brave man; Good Luck to him.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

There are some reports via WebmasterWorld that Ask.com has completed some type of search update.

It is hard to tell for sure, since the volume of traffic received from Ask.com is typically low. So any increases and decreases, percentage-wise, can be huge.

I reviewed a few of my sites and did see spikes up or down via Ask.com from this week to last week.

One member said:

Been watching movement with ask.com for the last couple of days and my sites been getting progressivly worse as the days move on..

The Ask serps have been before the update very stable and constant.. Yesterday and Today not so much..

But as I said, it is hard to know for sure, like with a Google or Yahoo update.

Forum discussion WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday, I wrote how Is Ask.com's "The Algorithm" Campaign Really Working? I then submitting it to Digg, and it later became "popular". My goal was to see if Digg users were also confused by the campaign, as confused as my brother-in-law and as confused as some of the search marketers at Cre8asite Forums.

The discussion echoed the findings in the Cre8asite Forums. Many, unfortunately, are confused about how this marketing campaign promotes the awareness of their brand.

- 27 Digg Respondents (who actually associated the "algorithm" campaign with a brand)
- 20 associated "the algorithm" campaign with Google
- 6 associated it with Ask.com
- 1 associated it with eBay

Percentage of Digg Users Thought "The Algorithm" campaign was from:

It is important to note that campaigns like this need time to seed. It is probably Ask.com's goal to keep these campaigns going so that in the future, the seeds will sprout and The Algorithm will be considered Ask.com's. That seems to be the plan, but only time will tell. This also only reflects the Digg market and does not reflect normal people who work in schools, in doctor offices, legal offices and so on.

You can see additional comments at Digg and Cre8asite Forums.

The other day, I was chatting with my brother-in-law while flying back from St. Louis. Some how, the conversation about "The Algorithm" commercials came up. I went into the history behind the whole campaign, describing how Edison was leaked (the code name for the new Ask.com algorithm) and it all began there. We then began seeing billboards for The Algorithm and then the buzz about the controversial nature of some of those billboards began to rock the public. Soon after the commercials began coming out and then the launch of the news Ask.com site.

My brother-in-law, who is extremely technology savvy, stopped me and said, he thought the commercials were for Google. I looked at him with concern and asked him to repeat that. He said it again, he thought those were Google commercials. He said, when he thinks of the word "algorithm," he thinks of Google. I was taken back and thought, wait a second, maybe other people think the same thing.

So I started a thread at Cre8asite Forums and received some trusted and useful feedback on the topic.

Softplus, an active SEM forum member in several forums, said:

In the beginning, it confused me as well

Google is constantly doing something with it's "algorithm". It even ranks #4 for "algorithm" (on Google).

Getting a "new" company associated with a term like that is going to be a long, hard journey....

Cre8asite Forum Moderator, Ruud added:

I'm convinced others are thinking the same. When we just had the "x hates the algorithm" stuff I was thinking they were kicking Google. "The algorithm is bad but we at Ask will do..."

The algorithm = Google.

I'm not sure how the TV spots would be viewed but your friend's reaction doesn't surprise me. Those around me who are not that computer savy do relate the word algorithm to Google... Go figure.

EGOL, moderator as well:

"Ask the Algorithm".... means... SEARCH GOOGLE.

Ask.com has two problems... lack of brand awareness... and because they have lack of brand awareness, a much stronger brand such as Google can usurp the word ASK right out of their commercial.

The feedback in the forum continues, it is overwhelming and all dead on.

Ask.com cannot get out of the shadow of Jeeves. Many miss the character, many miss the personality and many miss what it stands for. If searchers want an "algorithm," they will go to Google. I know Ask.com wants to change all that, but is it too late?

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

With all the new buzz around Ask.com and their campaigns, TV commercials and new user interface, a WebmasterWorld thread and Search Engine Roundtable Forums thread decided to take a look at a fundamental issue with their indexer.

Robert Charlton, WebmasterWorld moderator, noted that Ask.com is still indexing pages that have been 301 redirected (permanent redirect) over three years ago.

They are still indexing pages that were 301 redirected three years ago, redirects which have been followed by every other search engine in the known universe.

He is not the only person noticing this. I personally see it on several sites. But let's pull some more feedback from the forum thread.

Yes, I see this on a site that I 301'd over a year ago.. They still have about 1,700 pages from it actually. I'm concerned about this possibly causing duplicate content penalties with the site that it 301s to, which is currently delisted.

Yes. I can confirm more than a few instances of old URIs still appearing in the Ask index. Stuff from more than a year ago. I don't want to dig any further for fear of what I may find. ;)

Same for me, ask.com still shows (and ranks well) an address I 301'd more than FIVE years ago. I still have the 301 in place, for this reason (and for other old links).

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Ask.com has relaunched their search engine last night to "provide people with a faster, easier, and richer search experience."

Ask.com has decided to use the three pane interface and many of the features from the Ask X interface.

Here is the home page of Ask.com with the polka dots skin.

It is refreshing. When I began typing a query, vanity search, it offered search suggestions.

You can also customize your skin by clicking on the "Skins" link.

And here is the three pane view, with search box on left, results in middle and vertical search items on right.

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land has a detailed write up and so does Gary Price at ResourceShelf of all the features of the news Ask.com.

Will it make a difference? That is the current SEO/SEM discussion in the forums.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

First signs on "The Algorithm" came when Edison was leaked at SES NY from Apostolos Gerasoulis, the co-founder of Ask.com's technologies. Edison is the code name of the new algorithm, more on how that works here.

Since then, Ask.com has launched many local campaigns to generate buzz about "the algorithm." Some of those campaigns are a bit controversial. The goal, in my opinion, is to generate buzz around the phrase "the algorithm." Ask.com's CEO, Jim Lanzone, has gone on the record saying that they want the word "algorithm" to be a cool word.

A forum thread at Cre8asite Forum is still chugging away, I added that there has been a lot more discussion on Ask.com since they launched these controversial billboards and posters.

You know, the "no publicity is bad publicity" concept.

Now that Ask.com is backing these billboards on the algorithm with these new TV spots, that are both tasteful and cool, I think it may just help a bit. At least I hope so. Hey, I still am for the underdog and have been for a while. Check out my Ask Jeeves: The Little Engine That Could from 2004.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

I have been reporting about the Ask.com Algorithm campaign at Search Engine Land for a couple months now. You can read some of my coverage at Now Starring: The Algorithm - Ask.com To Focus On Ranking System In New TV Ads, Ask.com: The $100 Million Brand and some other Ask.com promotions here.