EveryJoe » ASK

ASK Adds Ticking Clock

Gilad — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:58:59 +0000

ASK added a ticking clock with local time to all local search results. It’s been a while since I last used ASK for local search and it appears as if they added weather, clock, pictures and all kinds of useful stuff…

For example, a search for Las Vegas, NV shows:

Post from: EveryJoe

ASK Adds Ticking Clock

ASK Smart Answers Adds Health

Gilad — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:13:03 +0000

ASK announced today the addition of health related answers to their “Smart Answers” engine. The answers which made available through a cooperation with healthline.com, a health search engine, cover a wide range of medicine each with links to related topics such as Composition, Dosage, Forms, Interactions, Precautions and Side Effects.

Here’s the results for a simple search for Naproxen on ASK:

From the official press release:

Ask.com and other major consumer-facing businesses are leveraging Healthline’s content to quickly obtain accurate and relevant medical definitions, images, and links to doctor-reviewed content to enhance the consumer experience and improve the brand ensuring the consumer experience.

As search engines move more and more information onto an “all-inclusive” format, much of the results will become obsolete and the competition for the top slots will become even more fierce. Will it stop the growth of information distribution on the internet? I think that certain verticals will definately slow down and introduction of such “health answers” across the board could be the first blow to many companies who specialize in just that.

Guess the next competition will be on who has the superior product which will be sought after by the engines for a possible partnership…

Post from: EveryJoe

ASK Smart Answers Adds Health

Engines Comment on their Own Privacy

Gilad — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:35:47 +0000

Last week CNET News.com sent 8 questions to each search engine in an attempt to rank them based on their own observation of themselves. This is in an attempt to help people understand the different policies used by each engine on specific issues. The engines included AOL, Ask.com, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo and the questions asked included:

What search-related data–including IP addresses, cookie IDs, user identities, and search terms–do you retain?

How long do you retain those data?

If you retain data for a limited period of time, is it completely deleted (in such a way that the data and backups cannot be recovered, even under court order) or is it anonymized instead?

If the data are anonymized, exactly how do you do this?

Do you do behavioral targeting, meaning showing ads to users based on their behavior across multiple queries?

If you do, is there a way for users to opt out of behavioral targeting?

Do you use knowledge about your users (such as ZIP code, e-mail address, gender, or birth date) obtained through user registration to deliver targeted ads on your search engine?

Do you use knowledge about the identities of your users’ instant messaging or e-mail correspondents when using those services, or the contents of those communications, to deliver targeted ads on your search engine?

Interesting stuff…

Post from: EveryJoe

Engines Comment on their Own Privacy

ASK & MSN Join Forces in Embracing Privacy

Gilad — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:37:19 +0000

As ASK is getting ready for the launch of ASKEraser, its anonymous search tool due out soon, it joined forces with MSN in an effort to create an “industry standard” to better protect consumer privacy. The two, who are more of the “market followers” in the industry joined yesterday and proposed a project which would “bring together businesses, advocacy groups and academics to develop a set of guiding principles that would help alert users when their online behavior is being tracked and for how long that information is retained.”

Privacy issues became public concern with Google’s planned acquisition of DoubleClick and the criticism followed it from the EU and the idea behind this new initiative is to create a single standard for search engines and online advertising to replace the current hodgepodge of privacy policies.

The success of this initiative depends at large on the cooperation seen from Yahoo (doesn’t plan on participating) and Google (doesn’t plan on commenting), but I am sure that if such a standard is formed, market forces would enforce the two to adapt accordingly.

[via SFGate]

Post from: EveryJoe

ASK & MSN Join Forces in Embracing Privacy

ASK to Launch an Anonymous Search Tool

Gilad — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:02:23 +0000

While Google keeps on getting more and more hear for insisting on keeping surfer’s information infinitely (in Internet terms at least), ASK seems to have gotten the picture and announced today a new search tool which will forget about you altogether, Sort of like “10 Second Tom” from 50 First Dates…

The new tool, called AskEraser will offer users complete control over their privacy when searching for information: With AskEraser, people can ensure that their search history will not be retained by Ask.com. Searchers will have easy access to AskEraser and can change their privacy preference at any time. Once selected, searchers’ privacy settings will be clearly indicated on search results pages so they always know the privacy status of their searches.

ASK’s notion that anonymous user data is as good as non-anonymous one is great and, in my opinion, correct. The only reason a company would like to connect a person with its searches over time is for reasons beyond their needs such as profiling other “scary” uses. I think that this announcement on ASK’s behalf is a real breakthrough and I hope that others will choose to add such feature.

Post from: EveryJoe

ASK to Launch an Anonymous Search Tool

ASK’s Introduces a new Ad

Gilad — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:45:45 +0000

Earlier this month, ASK introduced its new interface along with a new ad campaign. This week, it added just another ad to the mix, this time it is a woman who “found what she was looking for”… Apparently she was looking for Kato Kaelin ?!? who according to ASK was “a footnote in the notorious 1995 murder trial of retired football star O.J. Simpson“.

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ASK’s Introduces a new Ad

ASK.com New Commercial

Gilad — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:44:21 +0000

Along with the new 3D interface, ASK launched a television ad campaign aimed at driving more traffic to try it out. The commercial is themed as “I got what I’m looking for” with half naked women dancing in the background.

Check it out on YouTube:

Post from: EveryJoe

ASK.com New Commercial

ASK is Set for a May Launch of its Contextual Ad Network

Gilad — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:43:35 +0000

ASK announced this week the launch of its new contextual ad network, competition to Google’s Adsense, Yahoo’s YPN and MSN’s ContentAds. The new platform is set to launch on May 21st, however, it is still unclear when it will be available to the public. This new feature is an extension of the ASL 2.0 (ASK Sponsored Listings) which was launched last October.

So, besides the fact you may hare Adsense why should you consider ASK’s product? From the ASL official announcement:

* It gives publishers more control over yield and relevancy
* It gives publishers more creative ad unit opportunities
* It allows both advertisers and publishers more control over where and what ads are displayed

ASK also promised:

* New customized relevancy thresholds for publishers
* Innovative yield management thresholds that allow publishers to optimize their monetization efforts

Lastly, a couple of screencaps of real ads:

Post from: EveryJoe

ASK is Set for a May Launch of its Contextual Ad Network

Index Update at ASK and Google Images

Gilad — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:25:01 +0000

I’ve seen a few mentions of a possible index update on both Google Images and ASK, and while some people claim that their traffic doubled, other’s dropped. Personally I do not track these indexes and cannot comment. I did, however, run into a Google images #1 result which has not existed for several months now and which made me wonder how old this index really is… Anyone else is seeing any changes? Post from: EveryJoe Index Update at ASK and Google Images

Post from: EveryJoe

Index Update at ASK and Google Images

ASKX Web2.0 Parody Connection

Gilad — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:53:35 +0000

Technigma notes today that ASKX.com (ASK’s “futuristic” testing environment) has it’s logo linked to a Flickr page yay2dot0logoparody which is a parody about the different Web2.0 logos.

Post from: EveryJoe

ASKX Web2.0 Parody Connection