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Really ever use ask jeeves? I mean, I used it once or twice several years ago, but is it really that popular to be bought for 2 billion?

Good question. So I asked Jeeves the question, and didn't get much of an answer either -- What is the value of the ask jeeves website?

Interesting enough, google had better results on the question than Jeeves did.

What's the best search engine?

why does Ask Jeeves suck so hard?

Do you like goatse?

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of those?

What's the best search engine?

why does Ask Jeeves suck so hard?

Do you like goatse?

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of those?

What's the best search engine?

why does Ask Jeeves suck so hard?

Do you like goatse?

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of those?

What's the best search engine?

why does Ask Jeeves suck so hard?

Do you like goatse?

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of those?

http://web.ask.com/web?q=test&qsrc=0&o=0/ http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=test&btnG=G oogle+Search&meta=/

what one do you find most usefull?

Are the good times back?

Let's ask jeeves!

I don't know. Did they?

mmm to be a monopoly and its perks

Yeah, because no other search engines exist.

Finkployd

And to think the entire empire was based on one simple fact: if you make the ads appear to be contextual and related to the rest of a page, a large majority of users (over 80%) will not recognize they're even looking at ads, and thus will be more likely to click.

That's the fundamental genius of Google. They've fooled most of their users. Btw if you don't believe the part about most users being unable to recognize text ads, here's the story about it from the BBC:

That's an interesting claim. The problem is, the article you present as evidence does a poor job at supporting it.

First, the article isn't about Google. It covers a general poll about search engines. Trying to apply all results to Google specifically is misleading. The possibly relevant parts of the article:

The report reveals that 84% of net users say they regularly use Google, Ask Jeeves, MSN and Yahoo when online.

Almost 50% of those questioned said they would trust search engines much less, if they knew information about who paid for results was being hidden.

According to Pew Research 44% of searchers use just a single search engine, 48% use two or three and a small number, 7%, consult more than three sites.

Of those asked, 62% were unaware that someone has paid for some of the results they see when they carry out a search.

Only 18% of all searchers say they can tell which results are paid for and which are not.

Said the Pew report: "This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results."

According to this survey, your claim of "over 80%" is actually 62%. That is, assuming this group of users can always be applied to Google - the data says otherwise.

Of course, the issue over what search engines are being used might be less important than I'm implying. Doing a search for "security" (a suggestion from another poster) on each of the listed search engines shows remarkably similar layouts. The odd thing is that they're all mimicking Google - or at least a previous version of Google. So does this all get applied squarely on Google in a round-about way? Not at all.

Indistinguishable ads were hardly Google's innovation. At the time Google came out, there were already search engines who mixed paid-for results in to their normal output with even less, if any distinction.

Google offering "sponsored" results was hardly new. An interesting distinction was Google's separating those results from it's content. And doing so rather distinctly with various visual clues.

So where does this 62% of unaware respondents come from? From the poll:

In recent years, most Internet search engines have begun providing customers with
TWO DIFFERENT KINDS of search results some that are PAID or SPONSORED
results, and others that are UNPAID results. Were you aware that search engines
now do this, or were you not aware of this?

Based on Internet users who have a used a search engine [N=1,165]
CURRENT
% 38 Yes, aware of it
62 No, not aware
* Don't know/Refused

While being aware of the ads would certainly help identify them, it doesn't mean that those ads are unidentifiable. Nor does it mean users are clicking them. If you look at my sample search at Google, MSN, Ask Jeeves, and Yahoo , you'll note an interesting distinction between Google and its competitors. Google has long done away with the sponsored searc

Last time I checked there was still:

Yahoo!
Altavista
a9
Ask Jeeves
Lycos
Teoma

...and even:

MSN

Have a reality check; Google is far from a monopoly. They may be the most popular but that's quite different than being a 2 time convicted monopolist.

Answer:

Elitism for the Masses

http://blog.ask.com/2005/02/welcome_bloglin.html

Really.

Neither this, nor MyJeeves is going to make AskJeeves anything but the ass of the internet.

Jeeves, what will happen when askjeeves goes out of business? link

Answer:

It Will Never Happen to Me
By Claudia Black. Only $6.29.
Amazon.com

nor google, but Ask Jeeves has a reply which seems to promise the earth. I am at work so don't dare proceed towards the glories that lie beyond.

Tons of web sites try to make a quick buck off eBay's affiliate program by placing "Buy X now on eBay!" links everywhere.

The same thing happens with Amazon.com and its affiliate program. Did you know that you can buy slaves on Amazon.com now?

Ask.com returns some pictures. How they succeed?!

http://pictures.ask.com/pictures?q=lynndie+england &qsrc=31&o=0

Use Ask Jeeves instead- they own their own search technology, and it's just as good as google- without the spammers.

While you are at it, buy up some stock. Ticker ASKJ. They just posted amazing quarterly results.

C'mon, I have a limit order at 28- help me out here ;)

Looks like they stole the page layout from Ask Jeeves; I see that they have a Mozilla Plugin. If enough people use Clusty with Firefox (since it is booming, after all), or it becomes a standard option, they could really make it big. I think that their biggest opposition is simply people wanted to stay "loyal" to Google- or just have used Google for so long, that they don't want to change.
I'm sad, though- I didn't show up on the Gossip search!

Here's a link to the page that Ask Jeeves used to return if you asked whether he's gay: http://sp.ask.com/docs/about/isjeevesgay.html

I just 'asked jeeves' to look up my real name in quotation marks: 481 hits. Google? 1420.

No, the real problem with AskJeeves is that you have to scroll past the first screen to see NON-PAID results. Try auto loans or spyware.

The spyware search is especially scary. Naive users (are there any others that visit AskJeeves?) are going to think the paid links are reputable sources of information. Instead of using Ad Aware or Spybot they'll be buying garbage products that don't work or make the problem worse.

I just 'asked jeeves' to look up my real name in quotation marks: 481 hits. Google? 1420.

No, the real problem with AskJeeves is that you have to scroll past the first screen to see NON-PAID results. Try auto loans or spyware.

The spyware search is especially scary. Naive users (are there any others that visit AskJeeves?) are going to think the paid links are reputable sources of information. Instead of using Ad Aware or Spybot they'll be buying garbage products that don't work or make the problem worse.

In the old days, they had a feedback mechanism in place where you had to choose what you mean from a list of candidate questions that the system believed you wanted to have answered. It was cumbersome and is gone now, but there doesn't seem to be any improved Natural Language Technology in place (yet).

--
Try Nuggets , the mobile search engine. We answer your questions via SMS, across the UK.

"Ask Jeeves" touts it's own toolbar as well bang on the front page ...

Well, I went ahead and asked. And yep, looks like they have a three year contract that started in 2002, so it'll be up within a year.

First result of Ask Jeeves: Hmm?

First result of Google: Ahem.

There you have it.

Used to be that when you asked "funny" questions, you got "funny" answers. In fact, you can read the old result to this question here. So - they may have confused more potent technology with "growing up" in a way that Google, thankfully, has yet to do.

ask

google

After:
http://ask.com/

I actually ran into all of the talk about the singularity by asking the question: What is the meaning of life? More specifically, I asked Jeeves.

The first result he comes up with (this one) is an FAQ on the meaning of life. Part of the question of the meaning of life is an eventual goal, something to reach towards. Once of the options discussed is the Singularity.

The best place for more info is the Singularity Institute. Their definition of the Singularity is the technogical creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. This is by any possible means, either overclocking the human mind, creating artificial intelligence which is smarter than humans, or some combination thereof (such as uploading human minds to computers to run at a faster rate).

Read the FAQ. It'll clear up your basic questions, and doubtless leave you with many more.

I actually ran into all of the talk about the singularity by asking the question: What is the meaning of life? More specifically, I asked Jeeves.

The first result he comes up with (this one) is an FAQ on the meaning of life. Part of the question of the meaning of life is an eventual goal, something to reach towards. Once of the options discussed is the Singularity.

The best place for more info is the Singularity Institute. Their definition of the Singularity is the technogical creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. This is by any possible means, either overclocking the human mind, creating artificial intelligence which is smarter than humans, or some combination thereof (such as uploading human minds to computers to run at a faster rate).

Read the FAQ. It'll clear up your basic questions, and doubtless leave you with many more.

If you ask Jeeves, this is his answer. I would have checked it out first, but my company uses WebSense to keep us from visiting cool sites at work. (So I settle for /. ;)

However, following the link doesn't yield much else

Or they could ask Jeeves:

Say, Jeeves old boy: how many servers does Google have?

Jeeves: Piss off!

Geeves has been very good at coordinating all the work,

Did you perchance mean Jeeves, by Wodehouse?

A few sites come to mind.

I just asked jeeves whether he denounced it and given that the top 5 links are "Sponsored web links", he certainly does support it.

On the other hand, has anyone ever gotten a straight answer out of Jeeves? I didn't think so.

So, irrespective of the technical competence, or otherwise of Google, it is going to be around and the leader

This isn't necessarily true, as Yahoo! had a great-working engine and very good brand recognition. Although the syllables in "yahoo" do not lend themselves very well to verb usage or even expletives, the name is very much still alive. There are reasons why a brand gets to the top position in the first place, but there needs to be lots more reasons why someone sticks with that brand.

I hope Google stays fresh and at the top of the game, because it seems like the competition doesn't really care about the users at all. We can all agree that MS doesn't deserve a top spot for anything else. I don't think Yahoo! is in a position to take anything as far as search goes, but it might just be in my head. If Google needs to step their game up, certainly Yahoo! is long overdue. Their site seems to me woefully busy and somehow retains the look that nobody has messed with the design since 1998.

All the other search engines either advertise too much to be useful (see: Ask Jeeves) or seem to withhold relevant information (see: About.com).

Ask Jeeves.

No, but Ask Jeeves does.

...Kind of like the lady who felt reassured by seeing "chandaleer" on hundreds of web sites,

The thing that confuses me is:
If she's gonna use the internet to check her spelling, why did she use Ask Jeeves instead of the Dictionary ?

Oh, nevermind- Dictionary.com would have suggested she call it a "chandler"...

Here's what Jeeves says. Also came up with:

Search for WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?? on other sites:

Search Local Yellow Page Listings for WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?? sponsored by SMARTpages.com

Hey at least it didn't offer to show me where I could buy THE LOVE OF GOD online...

WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY??

nope, that's no help

(This here is a lameness filter buster)

>WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY??

I don't know. why not Ask Jeeves?

Ask Jeeves

Apparently they found religion.

(Ahem. ;)

AlltheWeb, Altavista, Ask Jeeves, Teoma, WebCrawler - all of them redirect the search results through their servers (and no doubt log it), but not Google (altough it did that couple of years back for a few weeks IIRC).

In adition to using non redirecting search engine one should be blocking their cookies too to get you little bit more privacy.

And BTW, MSN search doesn't redirect too, how scary is that 8o
Something wicked is going on in MSN land...

Ahh, Microsoft and ask.com in bed together...who could imagine?

Should Microsoft buy Ask Jeeves?

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Sounds ideal for integrating with Internet Explorer...