Welcome to 2012 and Happy New Years Day everyone! We wanted to share with you the logos and themes from the search engines for New Years! Google had two different logos, one for New Years Eve and the other for New Years Day. Bing had an outstanding video home page background: Yahoo had this nice Flash animated logo: Ask.com: Dogpile: Baidu: Sogou: Also, you do not want to miss the best Google logos for 2011. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Baidu | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Marketing | Top News

Ask.com has a long history in TV advertising; some of it has been entertaining and some of it controversial. But the IAC-owned search engine was on a TV hiatus of sorts during the past couple of years. Now, according to AdWeek, the company is running new TV ads in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The ads reportedly focus on Ask's more recent positioning as a Q&A engine: The 15-second commercials emphasize the company’s new focus on fact-based answers to questions posed in everyday language, showing people asking things like "Where can I watch TV online for free?" and "Does speed dating [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Search Marketing

I got a chuckle out of this on Google. Do a search for bing it, and Google comes back with a suggestion of "bring it." Is Google telling Bing to bring it on? It's all automated, of course. This is just Google's spelling correction kicking in. Many more people are likely typing in "bring it" than "bing it," so Google's trying to do the right thing and help them. But it's still funny to me. Over at Ask, the same thing happens there: So see, it's not just Google being mean to Bing. Yahoo also does something similar. It brings back results for for both "bring it" and "bing it" [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry | Features: General | Google: Marketing | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Marketing | Top News | Yahoo: Marketing

Ask.com has ended its NASCAR sponsorship after one year. That's according to The Sporting News, which reports that the sponsorship was actually fairly successful for Ask.com. Jared Cluff, Ask's senior VP of marketing, says the deal produced some measurable results in 2009: "We saw double-digit increases in usage among NASCAR fans. With the fan cards that our Ask Ambassadors passed out at the track, we saw a 27 percent conversion rate to the site, so fans were coming back from the track and going to the site. That's a remarkable stat." The Sporting News says Ask spent about $15 million [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry

Ask UK (uk.ask.com) has a new game where you can dress up the lovable Jeeves character. Just search for [want to dress up jeeves] at Ask UK and you will be presented the opportunity to place khakis on the famous butler. You can dress up Jeeves at uk.ask.com/dressupjeeves. UTalkMarketing.com reported "Gieves and Hawkes together with Ben Sherman have supplied virtual outfits that allow users to transform butler Jeeves from his usual smart two-piece suit." The Flash dressup wizard was created by Framestore and Moonshine and offers 100,000 different outfit combinations. Here is a video o [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Search Marketing

I was walking through the expo hall, which I rarely do, and I spotted at the Ask.com booth this sign. You read that? "My company just gave up on search. Where do I work now" and then the URL at the bottom. That is Ask.com being funny and then trying to pick up Yahoo Search employees. I am also being told that they are giving away bars of chocolate that say the same line. Yea, Yahoo did give up on search but I also personally believe Ask.com has also given up on search. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry | SEM Industry: Community | Yahoo: Business Issues

If you visit Ask.com today, you will see what looks like a huge ad, in form of what is called (I believe) a skin ad, engulfing the home page. The ad, at least to me, shows a sign of desperation for Ask.com to raise ad dollars. While Google would rarely ever show an ad, even a text ad, for a third-party on their home page, Ask.com makes a full page ad. At the same time, the ad is cool in that many of the mouse hovers lead to search results, with Ask.com's Smart Answers, similar to how Live.com does hotspots. Here is a picture: I am curious on your take. Do you like these types of [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry

It has been well over three years since Ask.com has retired Jeeves. Ever since then, many searchers and internet users have asked for his return. Today, Jeeves has come out of retirement, at least in the UK, where he returns as the brand behind the search engine. Visiting uk.ask.com or any of the URLs should now give you the revitalized Jeeves character, when accessed within the UK. The new character has been transformed into a 3D icon, replacing its 2D counterpart. The 3D version will be found on the Ask UK home page and on the right hand side of the search results. The character will [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry | Features: Analysis | Top News

If you visit Ask.com today, you may notice that they have ads for their sister sites. Here is a picture of Ask.com with a Match.com ad, an IAC property. Currently, Ask.com is the only "search engine" to have display ads on their search home page. I'll leave my negative thoughts to myself this time. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Search Marketing

Yesterday, Google joined Twitter with a company account. We twittered a few search engine-related addresses as part of our post about that, but we wanted to do one that was a little more organized. So welcome to our big search engine Twitter list! The list isn't complete, nor will it ever be. But that's how it went with blogging. A few years ago, search engines and their employees jumped into the world of blogging (our Search Engine Land blogroll lists a number of these). "Who's blogging" lists soon emerged, until blogging became so mainstream that people stopped bothering to keep track. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Employees | Ask: Promotions | Blekko | Channel: Industry | Features: General | Google: Employees | Google: Marketing | Microsoft: Employees | Microsoft: Marketing | Top News

Ask.com -- saying it plans to compete against the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft -- has announced a new "Super Verticals" strategy to take on its much larger rivals. These are specialized search engines that provide direct answers to factual questions. First off the mark? A NASCAR search engine. And yes, Ask also becomes the official search engine of NASCAR. You won't find the NASCAR search engine from Ask.com available yet. It will be released in conjunction with the Daytona 500 race on February 15, just part of an overall marketing plan that Ask hopes will attract NASCAR fans [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Search Marketing | Top News

Try it, go to askjeeves.com, notice how it redirects you to ask.com and then shows you the old Jeeves character. Is Jeeves back? Don't you remember? Ask.com retired Jeeves back in February of 2006. Now, two and half years later, they are bringing Jeeves back? Is it possible? Last signs of Jeeves showed he was in the adult entertainment business (joking), possibly because Ask.com's search technology has been looking a bit shaky, to say the least. All in all, it does indeed seem like Ask.com is going back to 1996 and maybe this just helps us prove it? I will email Ask.co [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Search Marketing

Google recently came under fire for not providing a link to its privacy policy right from its home page, as Yahoo and Microsoft do. Ask.com, apparently hoping to ride the issue to some consumer gains, has emailed us that it now proudly sports a privacy link on its home page, along with some new privacy smart answers. C'mon Google, just add the link -- seven letters, PRIVACY, won't take up much space. And it will at least stop others from riding you on the issue this way, even if practically no one will click on the link. More from the Ask email, below: An Open Letter to the Web Community [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues | Ask: Promotions | Ask: Web Search | Channel: Industry | Legal: Privacy

Stake Is Bought in IAC/InterActiveCorp from the New York Times reports Liberty Media Corporation purchased an additional 14 million shares in IAC/Interactive Corp, the parent company of Ask.com. The 14 million shares came out to about $339.5 million, but have given Liberty Media Corporation about a 30 percent stake in IAC. Liberty Media Corporation purchased the shares to take advantage of the "recent decline in the stock price of IAC," said the New York Times. In somewhat related news, What Advice Would Dr. Phil Have for Ask.Com? from the NY Times blog looks at recent management changes a [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry

Ask has been trying a range of strategies to gain more consumer attention and usage: the bold Ask 3D redesign, the questionable "algorithm" campaign, and now more TV product placement. AdAdge writes about Ask's recent TV show integrations, including a new one with Entertainment Tonight: Previous integrations with reality competition series such as NBC's "Treasure Hunters" and MTV's "Road Rules" both succeeded in driving traffic in real time as the show's search-based plotlines unfolded. But recent months have brought a bigger push in fictional entertainment, with Ask.com buying integrations i [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry

I'm in the Bay Area this week, and driving down Lombard Street, I brought the car to a halt when I saw the two billboards above. Yes, that's one of the Goog411 billboards for Google Voice Search sitting on top of an Ask.com "The Algorithm" one. Sadly, there's doesn't seem to be room to squeeze in ones from Yahoo and Microsoft. Want to see them for yourself? Go down Lombard, just up from Gough. I've got another shot here, as well. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry | Google: Marketing | Google: Voice Search

The iWon site has been relaunched with a new look and with the intention to give away more prizes. Barry Diller's IAC revamps iWon.com from BusinessWeek details most of the changes, which include more "games, more prizes and plans to add social networking functions." In addition, iWon will contain a search toolbar that links search traffic to Ask.com. This is significant, because with Ask.com trying to increase market share and not really succeeding, IAC is looking for other ways to increase share. Microsoft saw a large spike this year when it did giveaways, so IAC might be hoping for the [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Other | Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry

Gary Price discusses a brand new Ask.com commercial being broadcasted in the U.S. This commercial is very simplistic, with virtually no words to the whole commercial. It just shows feature after feature. Here it is: This commercial appears to use a totally different creative viewpoint when compared to the new UK commercials staring monkeys. Is this new commercial too basic? Would, again, love to hear your thoughts. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry

The Ask.com Blog announced that they have new commercials rolling out in the UK. They call these commercials the "third stage of the campaign" which is out to promote the Ask.com brand and features. The commercials show hints of the Information Revolution message and some of their past promotions. I find the new commercials, featuring monkeys and postcards a bit strand and creepy. Here are some of the commercials, available via YouTube. You make your own decision about them. I am very interested in your comments. [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry

As pointed out on Bruceclay.com -- Ask.com thinks you're an idiot -- Ask can sometimes be an irritating company. I like the new Ask3D interface, and they're doing a lot of good things in the search arena. However, when it comes to how Ask is marketing itself, I'm completely baffled. In the UK they have been running an "Information Revolution" campaign, employing a font reminiscent of Soviet-era dissident 'samizdat' typescript. I wrote about this in a column for the Ariadne magazine, and things don't look any better on the other side of the Atlantic. In the US, first we had the "Chicks with [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Promotions | Channel: Industry