Ask.com Changes Focus - Enter Ask Jeeves
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Ask Jeeves entered the search arena in 1996, getting its start in Berkeley, California. Its founders were software developer David Warthen and venture capitalist Garrett Gruener. The company aimed to let users of its search engine ask questions in natural language rather than force them to use keywords. Instead of typing “pizza Fort Lauderdale” into the search box, a user could type “Where are the nearest pizza places?” and get a list of answers. Or they could ask “Is Jennifer Lopez married?” and get a simple answer.
At least, that’s the way it was supposed to work. Ask Jeeves often gave bizarre or off-target answers, because the technology wasn’t really up to the task. In truth, even today’s technology finds this challenging, since it is still difficult to get a computer to understand the meaning behind words. In September 2001 the company got a boost when it purchased Teoma Technologies; that firm’s algorithmic technology remains at the core of the search engine to this day. Things started to look up for Ask Jeeves -- and then along came Google.
In all fairness, Google’s algorithm, and its new approach to search, blew everyone out of the water. The idea of a link to a site meaning a “vote” for that site’s relevance delivered more accurate search results, at least until some people learned how to game the system. Now, of course, search algorithms take dozens of factors into consideration when ranking a site’s relevance, but the “links equal votes” idea remains important.
Ask Jeeves was purchased by IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2005, and relaunched as Ask.com -- sans Jeeves, its beloved butler mascot -- in February 2006. With the makeover, Ask hoped to be taken more seriously. Indeed, it deserved to be taken more seriously as a search engine. It improved its search results and its interface, making it easier to find many things and conduct certain kinds of searches. This innovation reached an apex of sorts in June 2007, when Ask introduced its Ask3D. The interface offered three panes of well-organized results and made it easy for users to adjust the focus of their search. I reviewed Ask3D, and like many others writing about the search engine industry, found a lot to praise.
Apparently, however, this wasn’t enough. Ask.com receives about 45 million visitors a month. That sounds respectable, until you consider how much traffic the other search engines receive. By itself, Google handles nearly 70 percent of the U.S. search market. Microsoft and Yahoo together don’t hold a candle to Google -- so how can Ask hope to compete?
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