Ask Making A Bigger Bet On “Social Search” Or Q&A

If you're the number four search engine in a market that is looking like it's going to be about two (maybe three) players in the long run, what do you do? If you're Barry Diller and running the parent company of Ask, the search engine in question, you're potentially looking at selling, with Microsoft as a logical buyer. That's all speculation at this point, however. In the meantime, Ask is doing and trying a lot of things to keep users and redefine its role in this new, contracting or consolidating search landscape. Most recently it made a major push into shopping with "deals search." Anoth [...]

Filed in: Ask: Business Issues, Ask: General, Ask: Other, Ask: Web Search


Google Plays It Safe With ‘09 Veterans Day Logo

If you visit Google.com today, you will see a special logo for Veterans Day. The logo is less complex when compared to last years, where Google had to fix their Veterans Day logo. Last year, Google placed hats on top of each letter on the Google logo, the hats included Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. But they forgot one, the U.S. Coast Guard, which they added later. Google also has a logo on Google.co.uk for Remembrance Day: Bing has a Veterans Day Theme: Yahoo typically skips adding a special logo for today, which is what they have done today. But you can see more [...]

Filed in: AOL: General, Ask: General, Google: Logos, Microsoft: General, SEM Industry: General, Yahoo: General


MicroHoo-Ying Eyeing Global Reach, What About Ask?

There's a report from Reuters this morning that Microsoft and Yahoo are considering expanding the scope of their search deal "outside the United States": Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the company could look to extend its search engine partnership with Yahoo outside the United States, if it gets regulatory approval. Wasn't that already the intention? I thought it was a global deal already. European regulators wouldn't be considering it if it didn't apply to their markets; they wouldn't have jurisdiction. So I guess I'm a bit confused I guess. Regardless, if [...]

Filed in: Ask: General, Legal: General, Microsoft: Bing, Microsoft: Outside US, Microsoft: Partnerships, Yahoo: Outside US


Halloween ‘09 From Google, Yahoo, Bing & Others

Today is Halloween and the search engines have logos up for the special day. Before I post the logos, here are some posts from others in the community on Halloween. Matt Cutts of Google had a holy costume. Google Blogoscoped noticed Google added trick or treat to their robots.txt file. Bing has a special visual search edition for today. Bruce Clay's team dressed up and PPC Heros added some funk. Finally, the logos you see below is reposted from the Search Engine Roundtable. Google has four Doodles: Yahoo (Flash): AOL (Flash): YouTube: Bing: Ask.com: [...]

Filed in: AOL: General, Ask: General, Google: Logos, Microsoft: General, SEM Industry: Community, Top News, Yahoo: General


Diller Says He’s Willing To Sell Ask.com

Barry Diller, CEO of IAC -- the parent company of Ask.com -- said today that he's willing to sell the struggling, fourth-place search engine. His comments came during a conference call with investors after IAC reported its 3rd quarter earnings. "We've been asked a lot whether we're open to consolidating transactions in the area of search. The answer is yes," Diller said. "And, it is unlikely that we would be the consolidator." Diller also called the future of Ask.com "speculative" during today's call, citing the "fierce" competition in search. IAC's media and advertising business -- whi [...]

Filed in: Ask: Business Issues, Ask: Web Search


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