Will Ask.com give Google a run for there money?

[GreenGambler]

I've noticed alot of Ask.com commercials latley and the've also incorporated there advertising into reality tv shows such as Treasure Hunters.

I think once people get Ask.com into there heads they will forget Google was ever there.

I think this is a GREAT example of how a good DN can change a business and put the others out.

Google did a great job of branding there name but Ask.com... You almost don't have to do anything to market that name, though they have. Just ask the internet and get the results you want.

Google should have bought Ask.com when they could, even if they weren't going to use it, at least others' would not be able to either.

What do you think?

 

[adam_uk]

in the few years i have known of ask.com i have hated it.
i just visited it, its diffrent than when i remember it, but boy it stinks of google.

 

[engineer]

I think once people get Ask.com into there heads they will forget Google was ever there.

I think this is a GREAT example of how a good DN can change a business and put the others out.

Google did a great job of branding there name but Ask.com... You almost don't have to do anything to market that name, though they have. Just ask the internet and get the results you want.

Google should have bought Ask.com when they could, even if they weren't going to use it, at least others' would not be able to either.

What do you think?

I see your point but I would strongly disagree.
A Domain Name is just one part of branding, and as far as branding goes - Google has reached the very holy-grail, that-is, the status of icon, part of the lexicon of pop-culture. Other examples of this are Kleenex & Post-it notes (those are actually brand-names, NOT the name of a general product type).

When somebody wants to search something, or they don't know something, they 'Google it'. It's the ultimate win for marketing when you literally become part of the language.

Though obvious and short domains are great, a quick look at the Internet's 'biggest bigshots' shows its but a small piece of the puzzle:
monster.com : what do they do again?
ebay : what's an electronic bay?
amazon : where?
yahoo : an asylum?

As for searching, it will take a lot to unseat Google. They really did revolutionize the Internet. I remember trying to find something in the pre-Google days and it was standard-fare to have to traverse 10+ pages of searches just to find something relevant. Since Google, I don't remember the last time I've had to do 2+ pages. That said, Google is also an extremely well run company, somehow avoiding that stigma that companies tend to pickup when they get REALLY REALLY BIG (the question I ask at what point does a company go from aspiring to evil...), that 'do not evil' clause they enforce for every project or policy does alot for them. At the end of the day though: 'it's the results', and with Googles ever changing crawl algorithms, they will remain in the top echelon for a long time (though as a webmaster I will continue to quibble over the fact that they change algorithms maybe too often and their PR system alittle too mysterious)

 

[snoop]

I think this is a GREAT example of how a good DN can change a business and put the others out.

Google did a great job of branding there name but Ask.com... You almost don't have to do anything to market that name, though they have. Just ask the internet and get the results you want.

Google should have bought Ask.com when they could, even if they weren't going to use it, at least others' would not be able to either.

What do you think?

Until ask.com actually does something outstandingly better than the competition and becomes know for it they will continue to be a minnow. I don't see how ask.com has "put the others out" in any manner at all. At the moment it is just another "me too" search engine, even the colors on the search results are the same as google.

 

[GreenGambler]

I know Google will be king for a long time, but Ask... I mean that's a GREAT DN. True they do need to do something to stand out. And as far a "icon status" branding I completly know this and it is very true, to have your brand become a common name and used in place of the true name is amazing but can fade over time. For example I work in a large office building and I noticed the other day a man asked for a Xerox of something... For a minute there I had forgot that Xerox was one of these "icon" brands however I myself don't think I've used the word since the mid 90s. I always say a copy. Or photo copy.

So yes Google is truly great but they too can be overtaken, who knows when but it will entually happen.

 

[Isaac1]

Ask.com is a great domain, and has slowly been gaining popularity. But Google is now a household term. And Google isn't just a search engine. It's a toolbar. It's e-mail. News Stations are now using Google Earth for their images of places in the world.

Google is constantly expanding, updating, and improving. The competition simply cannot keep up. Ask.com is the least of their worries.

 

[AMDWarrior]

One word sums this question up.....NO

 

[dgridley]

For me, relevancy is the main factor I use to choose a search engine, then speed.. the most relevant and fastest will always get my bid.

 

[Epic]

I don't like Ask.com at all. It seems like they don't have as many search results as Google either.

 

[engineer]

And Google isn't just a search engine. It's a toolbar. It's e-mail. News Stations are now using Google Earth for their images of places in the world.

See my above post about competition, branding etc. (it's a long post, see it 1st)

I wanted to add/comment on Google's 'other products' + search engine popularity in general. I recall seeing in past that though Google ends up getting more searchers, the average visit was rather short, often much shorter than Yahoo. This of course has to do with the difference in strategy, with Google presenting an absolute bare bones native home-page (yes, its highly customizable, you can click through to a plethora of services but it's not something that occurs frequently, esp. before the popularization of Earth & Maps - on the other hand Yahoo offers a media rich, multi-interest, massively variable, multimedia experience right within its native search page. Whereas a Google user would search, then click through to the relevant site, a signifigant portion of yahoo users clicked through to the VERY CLOSELY BRANDED & INTEGRATED news stories, rich business directories, forums, etc. thereby keeping them within yahoos effective adspace. You can literally surf for hours, go shopping, post on forums, view videos while still being within 'yahoo proper'. Though Google does have Earth, Gmail, images & Froogle - they are hardly as closely integrated as Yahoos solutions. My impression is that Google's solutions feel like standalone destinations, while Yahoo presents more of a massively interconnected experience[/i]. This is of importance as the companies make the bulk of their profits selling advertising.

'Search Engine Popularity' is a really interesting topic, with all types of metrics being considered as useful or useless, depending on whom you ask. See:
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2164801
My view is that they are all incomplete views, and need to be taken together to form a concrete opinion (some count unique hits + don't consider a user returning 15 times throughout day to search etc., some count time spent on search only, some count time spent on overall search site...etc.)

For covering on Google, Ask and others, specifically the way they gauge relevancy of pages, search speed and other extremely issues relevant to searchers, see this fascinating article: http://www.seobook.com/relevancy/

 

[CrazyTech]

Until ask.com actually does something outstandingly better than the competition and becomes know for it they will continue to be a minnow. I don't see how ask.com has "put the others out" in any manner at all. At the moment it is just another "me too" search engine, even the colors on the search results are the same as google.

True, but you're looking at it solely from the point of an "educated" user, which is not really the perspective of the average user of the internet. We like Google for the same reasons, it's simple and powerful. When you want to find something, it's quick and easy and provides solid results. We know that, the average person doesn't always know that.

Ask.com's advertising campaign is based on a very solid domain. People love computers, but people also love smart computers (and humans) that can give you that extra help. The psychology of the domain itself provides a helpful connotation - that you're "asking" and not just "searching" for something. Ask.com is branding itself, quite well, as something that you would ask - just like someone would ask a service station employee for directions. Ask.com is taking the Google strategy, but using a solid domain name and a little marketing strategy to try and go a step further.

Will they challenge Google anytime soon by doing this? I doubt it. Will it be successful enough? Sure.

 

[apexad]

The other thing too, I am sure that if Google wanted to, they could easily swallow up Ask.com, and if they ever become too much of a threat, this would happen. Even if it was a mutual merger, Google still has the power and leverage to do this, and that is the bottom line.

 

[labrocca]

Before google I was using HotBot but the G SERP pages were ad free and loaded very fast. I never had a problem finding things from Hotbot but Google sucked me in with it's simplicity. I now wish it never happened. I think G sucks now.

 

[drifta]

ask.com is nothing..... HUGE mistake getting rid of jeeves

 

[killaklown]

I have been using Ask Jeeves for sometime, then they changed to Ask. They still use both domains: AJ.com & ASK.com. I tend to get better results with Google.

Didnt they sell it to someone else and they removed 'Jeeves' and the butler?

 

[drifta]

they have www.askforkids.com which explains where jeeves went..

 

[matt_bodis]

I used Yahoo before I used Google in 2000 - 2001, around that time.

I do also remember using HotBot.com and DogPile.com before using Google as well. You know what domain should really be bought by Google? Search.com.

 

[GreenGambler]

Here is an example of how Ask.com is doing a great job marketing there GREAT DN!

I found it on DP and thought I would share.

It is a wonderful commercial. Check it out below​

http://www.devilducky.com/media/43753/

What do you think?

 

[Amnezia]

ask is a pretty decent search engine but in terms of market penetration they are small. I would like to see them bceom big, i think their relevancy is a lot better than msns but i dont like the way they blend the paid results in with the organic ones.

 

[JYM]

There is no chance ask.com will beat google. Although ask.com has more advertisements, more people start using google because of what their friends/family say. Google is so common it's used as a verb (' go google it '), and even appears in the dictionary.

Plus, google is just so much better than ask.com (if you ask a question in google, you'll get semi decent results.. do the same in ask.com and you'll get garbage).