Ask.com: Vertical Search Push
February 8, 2009
The harsh world of Web search seems to have ground down Ask.com even further. Search Engine Watch’s “Ask.com Parent IAC Sees Disappointing Revenues, Plans Vertical Search Strategy” here tells the tale. You can read the financial details yourself. For me, the most interesting comment is the strategy intended to turn the sea of red ink into a salmon fishery was:
Instead of attempting to take on Google head-on, Ask.com will follow a vertical search strategy, which kicked off last month with deal where Ask will power the search experience on NASCAR.com, provide a NASCAR toolbar, and sponsor a car. IAC plans to roll out from 8 to 10 similar relationships this year.
Yep, the search engine of NASCAR will seek “similar relationships”. One hopes that Ask.com tries to locate a relationship not experiencing sponsor defection and declining attendance. When I was at Ziff, one of the Ziffers was involved with the original AskJeeves.com site. Since its founding more than a decade ago, Ask.com has never been useful for my type of research. Maybe this vertical search approach will work? Vertical search is sort of a hassle for me. I prefer to go to one place and get results. Running the same query on different “vertical” systems means I have to federate the results. Nope, I want the system to do the grunt work.
Stephen Arnold, February 8, 2009
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