Ask Ramps Up The Mystery Ads

Apr 3, 2007 at 1:46pm ET by Danny Sullivan

First in the UK, Ask rolled out a guerilla marketing campaign aimed at sparking an "information revolution" to choose Ask over Google. Now a different yet still mysterious campaign is underway in the US by Ask.

Valleywag reports about billboards on Highway 101 between San Francisco and San Jose saying "The Algorithm Killed Jeeves" [Ask's old mascot, when it was called Ask Jeeves] and "The Algorithm Is From Jersey" [where Ask’s Teoma algorithm was developed, and where it continues to have a research center."

Valleywag has pictures of the billboards. I like one that shows up right behind the San Carlos city limit sign. San Carlos is the hometown of Ask CEO Jim Lanzone.

Buzz It

Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He maintains a personal blog called Daggle, can be found on Facebook, Google Buzz and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan.

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