Kate Morris

Live released a new look … look familiar?? *sigh* But it does look good. Live looks like Ask, Ask is using Microsoft Maps, hmmm …

New Live.com

Ask.com

I’ve heard from a number of people in the industry that the new CEO of Ask has been contacting them trying to get them back as brand ambassadors. Smart move? Yes. Executed well? No.

The CEO, if he isn’t already, needs to be reading Seth Godin’s blog. If he is already, I would suggest not skimming the entries. Why? It looks like he got the concept - the company made a boo-boo, and he knew that many influential bloggers we mad. So he reached out to them.

What did he miss?

1. He insulted most of them in an article on Forbes.
2. He missed meetings.  (can’t say who with, they like their twitts anonymous)
3. He missed the entire point they had all been making.

Why do I talk about Ask so much? Well they keep giving me reasons to AND I still think they have some great people with some great ideas. Remember my idea of an Ask/Yahoo deal? Well I have one thing to say to the Ask.com employees:

Yahoo is hiring.

Go take your ideas to a company with a greater following and the infrastructure to top the industry. Yahoo is hurting, but I think with the right ideas (the kind we see at Ask) they can take off again. I know the executives at Ask wanted Yahoo bought out, but that was just for PR purposes. We all know that was and still is a BAD idea.

UPDATE: Few more articles as of late. One is from The Lisa about Ask’s attempts with her. And the other is about how they are outsourcing various areas, to Microsoft no doubt. *sigh*

I’ve got a meeting soon, but I need to get this out while it’s fresh on the mind.

Last year I sat in Seattle at a Google Dance, and watched the beginning of blended search. It wasn’t on Google. It was on the new Ask.com. I was stoked. The interface was smooth, easy to understand, and put everything in one place.

A few months ago, Ask announced that it was dropping out in the race for search dominance, and focusing on women. What everyone in the industry heard is “we give up.” People cried, some went into hiding (kidding), and most just shook their head. A search engine that was doing everything right, developing ideas that were changing search as a whole, just dropped out.

Then the whole Yahoo thing came up and I mentioned that I thought a combination of Yahoo/Ask/AOL would be a killer. Great ideas, great community, great search.

Now what is Ask doing? Acting like the teenager in a new relationship saying “But I didn’t mean it!” Ask is now saying they were misunderstood. They are not dropping out in the race for search dominance. In fact, they are buying up other companies to build out their holdings.

What does the internet community think? The general consensus is that this newest release is a “we messed up bad” bit. But they did more than that. As Micheal Gray says, they missed the role that brand evangelists play. Lisa Barone at Bruce Clay was ready to die for Ask if they asked her. Now she won’t have anything to do with them. And that’s just ONE relationship, albeit a BIG one.

There is a huge need for graveling and innovation for Ask to fix that “erroneous communication” back in March. A few months is a LONG time in our world. You have to think about what you’re saying before you say it. Hire some great developers Ask, and a better PR team. You’ve got some relationships to rebuild if you want back in good graces.

We got a call from AOL marketing services yesterday. Bit of a surprise to me, but then I thought about how many times I’ve heard AOL’s name in the past week and was surprised no longer. From new executives to the acquisition of Bebo, their like 105th acquisition in the past year (I exaggerate), I can see they are on the move.

Then thinking about how Time Warner is planning to spin them off got me thinking. Ask just made a dumb move focusing just on women (I am one and all, but really??), Yahoo is in trouble, and AOL is going psycho.

Humor me for a second. How interesting would this situation be? Ask and AOL merge, which is highly probable according to other industry experts (and AOL’s 106th acquisition), forming the now AOL. I propose another name or something — but with AOL’s base, Ask’s technology, Quigo/Ads.com and AIM/Bebo, they have something there.

Take that company and put that up against the top 3. Now remember that Yahoo is in danger of being bought out. I don’t want that to be Microsoft, so why not merge the new AOL/ASK and Yahoo? Talk about a powerhouse! Ideas, technology, subscribers galore! That is the only way I can see anyone giving Google a run for their money.

I just read a story about how Google is heading downwards in financial terms. Of course this has little impact on their status as the search engine leader, but its interesting to read today. One reason really … Ask.com

The morons (sorry, its true) at Ask.com have decided to go back to the 1996 way of doing things and stop playing with the big boys.

Partner this with Yahoo’s downturn … and all of a sudden I am scared. Seriously. I really don’t like MSN. I don’t like AdCenter, and I don’t need them taking Yahoo and the second position. I want innovation. I want the ideas at ask!

So I’m with Lisa … today sucks for the search world. I finally get happy about the state of the US, and then my search world goes to hell. *sigh* I want all parts of my life out of hell at least once.

Microsoft tried to buy Facebook to no avail. Now they are trying with Yahoo. And Google got flack with Doubleclick? Wait … why isn’t anyone noticing that MSN is buying EVERYONE again. There may still be competition, but really??

I am still riding the fence on this one though. There is some real good that COULD come from a Yahoo/Microsoft merger. But I still am not a fan of Microsoft. So what I really need to say is Go Ask Go!

I’m all about it. I can’t wait to get one of my websites on this to try it out. Go ASK Go!

Remember at SMX Advanced when I was all psyched about the new Ask.com and it’s look and integration? At SES, they have annouced some results from that new look. (Via BruceClay)

How has this changed user behavior?

Ask has seen a huge jump in user satisfaction, a 30 percent drop in users clicking through to the second SERP, 15 percent drop in users sessions with more than one search. Users really are coming and getting what they want in that first page of results.

Just what I thought would happen. Things are getting better for the searcher, but harder for us as search marketers.

I shared some of these viewpoints with Ask last night, but it wouldn’t hurt to air them elsewhere. Techdirt just ripped up the new Ask.com interface and algorithm.

I disagree with them on one point but completely agree on another, more relevant point.

Disagree:
Ask does have the better search engine in some cases. Case in point, SMX Advanced Penalty Box discussion. Someone brought up the fact that someone is spamming .edus for Buy Viagra. Try that search in Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.

Yahoo and Google have the same results, .edu is in the top 3. Then check out MSN - No .edus but not really relevant either (Danny said it NOT me). Finally check out Ask. Not bad huh?

Agree:
Techdirt noted that even if Ask’s engine is better, who is going to know? I had a discussion at lunch with someone that brought up that campaign Ask launched recently. Horrible. And then even here, I am begging them for more information. I love the new site, I think there can be a lot learned there. But the marketing just isn’t there. The word of mouth isn’t there.

Want to know how Google did it? A good engine and great word of mouth. Use the SEM and webmaster community to get the word out. Treat us like Google treats us, as partners. Then we will speak your praises. I got that last night, hence the praising. But it needs to happen on an industry level.

Tell us Ask. Tell us all about you and why we need you. Because right now, we don’t know.

I am going to get to my blogs from yesterday later today. Blogging while learning is rough though, especially without a place to plug in the laptop. That is going to be one of my “next show we need …” comments.

The real news though comes from the Google Dance NW last night. It was a great party put on by Google, with glow in the dark cups, Google SMX shirts, and glowy necklaces. But again, not the real news.

I ran into a nice gentlemen while getting into the elevator. He took one look at my tag and exclaimed “Kate I’ve been looking for you.” That worried me. Who in the hell knew me at this conference? I just started blogging (though I am planning to continue) and have very little personal presence on the web.

Turns out he knows someone I work with, one of the executives (later I find he has met everyone: Jeff, Ed and Al). So I spent the night talking to Jason Robey and his crew from Gardner Publications.

The nights events included two things: seeing the new Ask.com launch live and talking with Matt Cutts in person.

Ask.com
We ran into Patrick Crisp, PR from Ask.com, sitting in a corner typing furiously. After we mistook him for someone else, we got to talking about what he was working on. Apparently Ask had just launched their new site, but stuff wasn’t working. So he showed us around. I must admit I was impressed. The new site is very well laid out, navigation options to the left, content and paid in the middle, and cool stuff that changes based on the search on the right.

Since he was kind enough to do that, we let him in on a few secrets on how Ask can do better. High points:

• Tell us more, talk about yourself, we are rooting for you!
• Talk to the webmasters; Google is great at that and no one else. Pick that up!
• Get a face for Ask like Google has Matt Cutts
• Take share away from MSN, it’s going to be so easy (yes I said that)

Matt Cutts
Poor guy was being cornered by this very pretty lady from Webmaster.fm who had a few too many Google drinks (she admitted it!). So my new friends and I pulled him away. I must say, Matt is a very easy guy to talk to. Even though I am an adoring fan. He was very interested in what I had to say, what I was interested in, etc.

The highlight though was seeing a guy in a kilt (Seattle loves kilts apparently) and telling Matt that it would make a great picture for his blog of him in a kilt. He laughed and smiling (devilish if you ask me) and said “Okay. So what will you do for me? I double dare you.” So now I have to come up with something so that Matt will find and wear a kilt to work some day.

I left the party, said bye to Matt and everyone else with on guy noting “You are one of 10 woman here [Not true] and you’re leaving, that’s sad.” That made me feel better.