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Ask's Anti-Google Campaign  (View post)

Mysterius [PersonRank 10]

Sunday, March 18, 2007
17 years ago6,724 views

MSN/Live still seems to show a Live Search ad when you search for either "Yahoo" or "Google", just like Yahoo's search box. :(

SirNuke [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

If I search for 'google' on ask.com, nothing is out of the ordinary. Ask.co.uk, however, has a 'join the movement' banner at the bottom of their front page which links to http://www.information-revolution.org/ , which has a search box for searching Ask, Google, MSN, or Yahoo (though once again, nothing appears strange in the 'google' search results). Seems to be a short lived revolution, and one confined to the UK.

Mitchum [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was just reading on the Ask.com blog after this article... every bloody second post is them "attacking" Google and their branded pens. Things seem a little childish over there.

or [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Phillip, I would say though that Google's product promotion, and MSN/Yahoo's ads are much milder compared to this campaign by ASK, since this campaign attempts to pretend to be a grassroots movement not related to ASK. At least with Google, MSN, and YHOO, we know that they are pimping their own products.

John Honeck [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

No amount of advertising is going to help ask. Start with building a better search engine that gives better results, then advertise that with examples.

Currently ask is so far behind Google as far as freshness goes, I don't think Google has anything to worry about.

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Ask's people have a problem. So I use Ask to search (let's say for "google") and they tell me to use other sources of information and call me a "droid". But I use other search engines, I use Ask to see that ad.

Tip for Ask: buy AdWords ads and show that aggressive message that scares people away to people that use Google.

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

You can see that "smart answer" if you search for [search], [internet], [information], [revolution], [freedom], [choice]:
http://uk.ask.com/web?q=search&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir&dm=all

Martin Hinks [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Just thought you might be interested to know that they have been plastering adverts for the "information revolution" site all over the London Underground...

Eytan Buchman [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

This seems a little childish. Certainly won't pull me over to Ask either. Think about how Ask would be whining if super-power Google attacked them. I would say that only the underdogs have have the latitude to actually use methods like these. And I doubt Ask would want to be considered an underdog.

Justin Vincent [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Hiya,

I wrote blog entry abotu this and then saw a few others had.

Anywas, here's my take.

http://www.woyano.com/jv/ask-backfire

Cheers,
JV

David Hetfield [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

im glad Google ignores these acts (even though they did react once..)

Ringelnetz [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

"Das kann doch einen Googler nicht erschüttern, keine Angst, keine Angst Rosmarie..."

Ich versuche mich in die Lage der Google-Konkurrenten zu versetzen. Wer sucht bei Ask wohl nach Google? Stell dir vor, jemand geht zum Opel-Vertragshändler und fragt nach BMW oder Porsche... würde auch sauer reagieren. ;-)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

[Translation:

"The Googlers need not mind this, don't be afraid, don't be afraid Mary..."

Let's put on the shoes of the Google competition. Who's searching Ask for Google? Imagine someone goes to an Opel car maker asking for BMW or Porsche... Opel would be annoyed too. ;-)]

Scott Fish [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I think Ask is just asking for it with this little marketing strategy. I think if they were smart they would be cutting deals instead of making enemies.

Anti-Google [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

About time someone really stood up to Google domination

mikeT [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

If Ask starts providing high quality search results they'll have the street cred to dish Google like this. I get better results on About, for goodness sake.

Tim [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Wait, how is this different from running ads atop the search results? If Ask had put a pale blue box around this paragraph, would you be ok with it? Is there really a danger, in other words, of users thinking that this little Ask ad is a bona fide search result?

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Tim, disclosure makes a lot of difference (the campaign is stupid for other reasons but this makes sneaky, too). E.g. you're probably OK when a blogger puts up ads – but would you be OK reading a blog where the blogger won't tell you when someone paid them for a post?

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