This day in search marketing history: January 9
AdWords Managed Accounts got shared negative lists, plus: a Google knowledge graph hack, Google’s advertiser growth and more.
Topic: Jim Safka
Ask.com Celebrates 15th Birthday
Ask.com the social search/Q&A engine is 15 years old. Founded in 1996 as Ask Jeeves by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen the company has launched a special social site to celebrate its birthday and review events of the past 15 years — mylast15.com. Here’s a brief recent history of Ask: July 1999: Ask Jeeves goes […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 13, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: New York Times To Restore Links To IHT Stories In Coming Weeks Over the weekend, the New York Times was once again ridiculed for how links to its former International Herald […]
Ask CEO Safka to Depart
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ask.com CEO Jim Safka is leaving the company. He will become the head of Chegg, Inc., which rents textbooks to students online. The decision to leave is apparently Safka’s, for personal reasons. Longtime IAC executive Scott Garell will take over as “President of Ask Networks.” In its most recent […]
Ask.com Partners With NASCAR, Says “Super Verticals” Will Put It Back In Search Race
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 […]
Ask.com Goes Back To 1996 With New Release
Ask.com has released version 11 of their new search engine today. The new version somewhat goes back to the Ask Jeeves approach, focusing on providing structured search results, mostly in the form of answers. Techmeme has coverage of the news item, with the main articles currently from the NY Times and News.com.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 26, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Sorry, Ask.com — I Still Don’t Think You’re Focused On Core Search
Back in March, after Ask.com seemed to be pulling away from search to some people, I wrote that Ask "killed the search engine," was no longer an innovator in search, and couldn’t expect to compete against Google. Recently, I spoke with Ask.com CEO Jim Safka, who hoped to change my mind. He failed to do […]
IAC To Launch Startups, Take A Demographic Approach To Search
The Wall Street Journal reports that IAC, parent of Ask, is preparing to launch a number of startups after its spin off of some of its traditional media properties. Among the new sites is RushmoreDrive, a niche search engine targeting African Americans. What’s interesting is its demographic approach to search.
IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine
IAC’s Ask.com to Cut Staff, Outlines New Search Strategy from the Wall Street Journal reports IAC has cut 8% of Ask.com’s workforce, by letting go 40 people. Not only that, the Wall Street Journal says IAC is changing the strategy of the search engine to “focus to better answering search queries posed as questions.” Ask’s […]
Byzantine Legal Fight For Control Of Ask.com Parent IAC
The Wall Street Journal covers the “open warfare” between IAC CEO Barry Diller and Liberty Media, one of its largest backers and investors. Liberty Chairman John Malone has grown increasingly frustrated with IAC’s financial and stock performance and Diller himself. Diller has control of the company through a Byzantine procedural agreement that allows him to […]
Jim Safka To Replace Jim Lanzone As CEO Of Ask.com
IAC, Ask.com’s parent company, has announced that Jim Lanzone, the CEO of Ask.com, will be replaced immediately by Jim Safka as the new CEO of Ask.com. Safka was previously the CEO of Match.com, IAC’s online dating company, from 2004 to 2007. He will also retain his job at as CEO of Primal Ventures, an investment […]