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Barry Diller Puts His Ask on the Line
February 27, 2006
Today, Barry Diller gave the keynote address at Search Engine Strategies, which coincided with a new look for Ask.com. The butler's gone, replaced with a toolbox. (Perhaps if he'd had the foresight to unionize...)
The toolbox is a nice way to show the various search capabilities of Ask. As for usability, it's so-so, but better than some. For example (and this applies to every engine), I never know whether I'm supposed to enter my query terms in the main search box then click the correct tab/tool, or whether I'm supposed to click the tab/tool first, then enter the query. I have a niggardly attitude toward unnecessary clicks and keystrokes, so I wish it were more clear. It's frustrating to type a query, click a tab, then have the engine transfer you to the correct search "area" but lose your query terms.
But that pettiness aside, the tools are nice. Clicking various tools brings up unique search parameter fields, such as the unit conversion tool, shown in the next image. (Careful - the Bloglines button doesn't help you search Bloglines; it takes you to the site.)
Who should be afraid of a successful, new Ask.com? Not Google or Yahoo. MSN and AOL have the most to lose if Ask becomes a huge hit, mostly because they're in the same general tier of market share. Losing 2% of the global market share hurts quite a bit more when you have only 5-10% of it in the first place.
But AOL and MSN both have the "portal" advantage - people start and end their days there, checking email, reading news, and so on. So even if it's a better search experience, Ask will need something extra to pull new users over and keep them.
Despite its relatively small market share, Ask is a profitable business unit led by a pretty disciplined management team. It currently enjoys a nice mix, flying under the radar of consumer and governmental scrutiny, but still making serious money. Time will tell if Diller and the Ask will happily trade more of one for more of the other.
All posts by Erik Dafforn
posted by Erik Dafforn at February 27, 2006 11:49 PM
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