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I bet many of us have seen the Ask.com commercials touting the Algorithm. When I first saw the commercials, I instantly thought to myself that they are trying to emulate Google; not in terms of ousting them from the top of the search engine market but instead by focusing on the quality of searches.
Google’s now famously potent PageRank algorithm helped it zoom to the top of the search market and it soon became popular not because of its simplistic interface (ok! it played a part) but also due to the high relevance of its first ten results. Google engineers are continuously tweaking their algorithm that drives their search engine. If users are hitting the next button or modifying their search terms, then Google in fact considers it a failure to serve the needs of its users. But in fact, such tweaking and constant updates on its PageRank system has kept Google at the top of its game. Even in technology circles, Google is looked upon as technologically adept even though sometimes its ‘Do No Evil’ motto is viewed with doubt.
That is exactly why Ask.com’s ‘Algorithm’ advertisement campaign comes off as a surprise. You can see the TV spots here. Why are they promoting the ‘Algorithm’ to the general audience who may actually not give a damn. Do average users really care about what goes on behind the scenes of a search engine as long as they get what they are looking for? In a way, Ask’s other commercial - I got what I was looking for - works much better. In fact, it perfectly targets the average search engine user that is often looking for weird stuff (honestly, such searches must far outstrip the work or study-related searches). Even the Jeeves character previously associated with Ask was much-loved. They should just drop the last ‘The Algorithm’ bit; it just doesn’t work.
But their Algorithm commercials are having the opposite effect i.e. they are being associated with Google even among the tech crowd. Now I’m sure that is not what the Ask marketing campaign was hoping for. But that’s what you get for trying to change something that is so ingrained with one brand. Imagine another credit card company trying to use the ‘Priceless’ tag from Mastercard. It wouldn’t work in its favor, would it?
by Patrix | on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 11:23 pm | 
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June 14th, 2007 at 7:46 am reply
Want to object to your statement “honestly, such searches must far outstrip the work or study-related searches”. The average user searches for everything, places to go, things to cook or buy, movies to watch. The list is endless. I dont think searching for wierd stuff is a significant fraction any more…no?
June 14th, 2007 at 8:50 am reply
curiouscat, you may be right and I don’t have numbers to prove otherwise. But I was assuming that considering the number of weird search terms I see coming to my blog or if you remember the AOL Search leak, the amount of bizarre search terms was mind-boggling. Sex is still the number one search term ever since they started keeping score in mid-90s.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:33 am reply
Ask.com is owned by IAC (owned by Barry Diller, yeah he of the FOX fame), which is the leading internet interactive conglomerate. If you look at all the results that pop up with ask.com, they are most likely to be companies that are owned by IAC :)
So I think they should just start campaigning as the a place you will find everything - a sushi joint to eat, the tickets to the movie and also a date (IAC owns match.com :P)
June 14th, 2007 at 10:51 am reply
Sakshi, well if IAC is promoting their companies in the search results, isn’t that unfair to the consumer because they aren’t getting the best results like Google does? I remember Google landing in trouble because they promoted their products in the Google Ads that you see at the top of search results. And I thought it was fair as long as they were playing by the rules of advertising in AdWords.