• Search Engine Land
  • Sections
    • SEO
    • SEM
    • Mobile
    • Local
    • Retail
    • Google
    • Bing
    • Social
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Mobile
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • More
  • Events
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Mobile
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Social

Sign up for our daily recaps of the ever-changing search marketing landscape.

Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.


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 […]

Greg Sterling on November 18, 2009 at 8:33 am
  • More

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.” Another major initiative to soon gain more momentum and visibility is something of a return to Ask’s roots as a “Q&A” engine. (The picture immediately below is circa 2001.)

Picture 46

Ask, which has been highlighting “answers” for some time, is going to move more directly into social search or real-time Q&A.

Ask President Doug Leeds told me the other day that Ask still gets a huge number of queries formulated as questions. In recognition of that and the more recent rise of social and “real time” search, Ask will begin to enlist its community directly in answering questions and use a number of sophisticated algorithms around question routing and identifying trustworthy and authoritative answers and people.

Picture 43

If well executed it could be an effective strategy for the company (including in mobile), which despite many years of innovative efforts under former CEO Jim Lanzone was not really able to grow its share beyond 4 percent of overall traffic.

Q&A services have been around for quite some time, while “social search” and “real time search” are newer phenomena. We could identify a range of companies that are in one way or another enlisting humans to answer queries or questions. Beyond Yahoo Answers, Mahalo and others like them, there are Aardvark, kgb, ChaCha, not to mention Facebook and Twitter, that fall into these categories to varying degrees. And Google recently introduced “social search” seeking to bring humans more directly into search results.

Leeds said to me that almost nobody in the segment today is going to be able to do what Ask can do with social search/Q&A “at scale.” I think that the strategy makes a great deal sense for Ask. Whether it people ultimately use it will depend entirely on execution.



About The Author

Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes about the connections between digital and offline commerce. He previously held leadership roles at LSA, The Kelsey Group and TechTV. Follow him Twitter or find him on LinkedIn.

Related Topics

Ask: Business IssuesAsk: GeneralAsk: Web SearchChannel: Social

Sign up for our daily recaps of the ever-changing search marketing landscape.

Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.


We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

ATTEND OUR CONFERENCES

Lorem ipsum doler this is promo text about SMX events.

May 21-22, 2019: SMX London

Sept 30 - Oct 1, 2019: SMX Advanced Europe

November 18-19, 2019: SMX Paris

February 19-20, 2020: SMX West

March 18-19, 2020: SMX Munich

June 8-10, 2020: SMX Advanced

November 11-12, 2020: SMX East

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

Gain new strategies and insights at the intersection of marketing, technology, and management. Our next conference will be held:

April 15-17, 2020: San Jose

October 6-8, 2020: Boston

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • How Good Partnerships Should Reduce Your Workflow
  • Digital Insights 2019: How marketers confront the obstacles of digital customer engagement
  • 14 Industry Experts on the Future of Attribution
  • The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Ad Spend from Invalid Traffic
  • How to Turn Leads into Repeat Customers
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • The Fantastic 5: Emerging strategies to drive conversions & growth
  • CCPA Goes Live in Weeks: Is your marketing measurement ready?
  • 4 Ways to Get Started With Agile Marketing
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Enterprise SEO Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Search Engine Land’s Guide To PPC

Master the Elements of PPC
Sign up for our NEW daily brief.
Search Engine Land
Download the Search Engine Land App on iTunes Download the Search Engine Land App on Google Play

Channels

  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social

Our Events

  • SMX West
  • SMX London
  • SMX Advanced
  • SMX East
  • MarTech West
  • MarTech East

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • Search Marketing Expo
  • MarTech Conference

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Advertise
  • Marketing Services
  • Staff
  • Connect With Us

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Youtube
  • iOS App
  • Google Play

© 2019 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.