9 replies to this topic

[invader]

The internet investment firm headed by US media mogul Barry Diller is to buy web search engine Ask Jeeves for $1.85bn (£970m). Ask Jeeves is the fifth most-queried search engine in the US and has a market value of $1.43bn, one tenth the size of Mr Diller's IAC/InterActive. Mr Diller said Ask Jeeves "has the potential to become one of the great brands on the internet".

The deal reflects rising competition between rival internet search engines.

More..


Wohoo, now that shows how heated the SE industry is gettin'! :shock:

[bwelford]

That's an important news item you've raised, Invader. I think this could be one of the major news items of 2005. I feel Google has lost its momentum and the Microsoft entry has really opened up the search market. There is a view that the Teoma technology, which is the basis of Ask Jeeves, is superior to others. The failing has been the pathetic marketing that the AJ stable has done.

The problem has been, IMHO, the multi-brand strategy that AJ has pursued. To my mind, the www.ask.com property that AJ has is superb. They should pour all their energy and passion into that domain and really work it hard. If they did, then perhaps in this horse race, the rank outsider might just come up the middle and steal the race.

[AbleReach]

Hmmm....



Elizabeth

[Ruud]

Before Google (yes, there was a before...) there were some queries I could only get away with at ask.com - still "just" askjeeves. Their natural language parser was pretty good and the results were often most relevant. Tweaked to the mainstream queries but still....

I think it was when the "ask a question" turned into more or less regular search, while on the SERPs it became quite hard to find the actual results between all the ad-nonsense, that I tuned out.

Ask should go back to answering questions. Talk to WikiPedia and pry them away from Google. Poor money into it. Go back to the natural language parser focus and incorporate an MSN-style "you ask, we answer"-Encarta (WikiPedia) setup. I'd never have to explain search to older family members again - and Ask would have a boom-market.

Think I might as well start to scrape some dollars together and do this myself *cough*

[MUSCLE13]

The problem has been, IMHO, the multi-brand strategy that AJ has pursued. To my mind, the www.ask.com property that AJ has is superb. They should pour all their energy and passion into that domain and really work it hard. If they did, then perhaps in this horse race, the rank outsider might just come up the middle and steal the race.

Totally disagree with that opinion. MyWay, Excite, iWon, MyWebsearch and Bloglines make up a large majority of the user traffic for Ask Jeeves. Much larger than Ask.com by itself.

The deal with IAC should bring much more traffic. Between the 2 companies they have over 70 million unique users per month not counting duplicates. Thats huge. Think of the search box distribution.

[swainzy]

Another article from Aurora's Competitive Intelligence:
Cracking the Code on Barry Diller’s Bizarre Ask Jeeves Acquisition: Why and Wherefore

"Diller said IAC sites attract 44 million unique visitors, and expects many of them to use the Ask Jeeves search bar instead of going to another site to conduct a search, such as Google."

[MUSCLE13]

You are right on target there swainzy. Jeeves properties have 42 million monthly users and combined Comscore says IAC and Jeeves have over 70 million unduplicated monthly uniques. This is not just a Google game. Google, Yahoo, MSN and Jeeves all will be successful. Search is a media business. Its not winner take all. Anybody that thinks Google has a lock on everything should remind themselves of the time a few years back when AltaVista ruled the search world.

[MUSCLE13]

This seems like a really nice forum. Glad I found it. Everyone seems so friendly and cool here. Search is a fascinating business. Most targeted form of advertising that ever existed in my opinion.

[swainzy]

MUSCLE13,

This seems like a really nice forum. Glad I found it.Everyone seems so friendly and cool here.

It is a nice forum! I agree. I feel free to post even when I feel unsure of myself.

Search is a fascinating business. Most targeted form of advertising that ever existed in my opinion.

I was just going to say - I can see that this is an intense business which presents a constant challenge and draws smart, competitive, innovative people to it. I find it fascinating even though I don't know that much about it. I like to follow along and learn. Boy, if I was younger, I would've loved to have gotten into marketing.

Donna

[usability_guy]

I donno about usa but I use askjeeves 3-5% as compared to google.
That is the trend in asian region more or less.
But whenever I used askjeeves I really got nice links.
I remember when I was searching for a "letter for raise" to ask my boss for appraisal a few weeks back.
Google Did not really give me proper sites where as askjeeves directed me to very proper sites.

Rams