Ask Jeeves Looks to Outshine Google

bizpile writes "The AP is reporting that Ask Jeeves is looking to distinguish itself from its competitors by adding new tools for visitors to save and organize links to Web pages they find through the company's online search engine. "Google is not better than us," said Jim Lanzone, an Ask Jeeves senior vice president. "We are both operating at a world-class level. We just have a different flavor." This free feature is scheduled to be unveiled Tuesday." With Amazon's new search engine recently arising, it definitely appears to be a critical time for search engines.

Comments

Perpetual also-rans have a place in this world.

[LostCluster]

Pepsi operates "at a world class level", but they "just have a different flavor" than Coca-Cola.
Burger King operates "at a world class level", but they "just have a different flavor" than McDonalds.

We don't like monopolies in our marketplace, and as a result we always have a place for the perpetual also-ran. Never able to capture the #1 spot may seem depressing, but it's still possible to profit as a #2 and be lying in wait in case the #1 player makes real big mistakes.

Google will have to seriously misbehave in order to give up enough market share so that Ask Jeeves can pass them. However, having Ask Jeeves parked in the #2 rank spot is enough motivation that hopefully Google will never forget its "Don't be Evil" policy.

Faliure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Failure already. How can you hope to be a goood search engine, when the non-sponsored results are half way down the page? Give me a break jeeves, ask yourself why you are still trying.

Does Jeeves use Google?

[SlongNY]

Doesnt Jeeves use google as its backend?

Diversity is a Welcome

[redfirebmd]

I'm a firm believer that we need diversity and competition in the computing world if we want to see progress. Just as it is counter-productive for MS to have a monopoly on the OS world it is undesireable to have only one search engine out there.

Just because Google thus far has been a very good company and used its power appropriately doesn't mean we should be satisfied with only one search engine. If we want to see innovation we need healthy competition, so I wish AskJeeves and all the others good luck.

Re:Diversity is a Welcome

[Anonymous Coward]

even though i think google has a monopoly on the search engine (well lets call it extreme dominance) they are not just trying to shut everyone else out.

they are continually innovating to stay ahead of the game.

thats rare for a company with such an incredible lead.

AJ better if implemented as advertised...

[magarity]

Ask Jeeves prompts the user to ask in plain language but the thing just parses out keywords and does a standard search. It doesn't interpret the intent of the question so all kinds of wierd results come back that have nothing to do with what you're looking for (just like a typical Google or Yahoo search). If it actually did try to figure out what you are really asking then it would be a lot more useful. Since it doesn't, why even pretend?

so does everyone else

[HealYourChurchWebSit]

I remember when Google came out. Not much talk on their part about what they were going to do ... rather they just went out and kicked everyone's butt.

I'm not quite sure if this annoucement isn't just to make investors happy or to make the Ask Jeeves more 'sellable' but if search.yahoo.com couldn't wack Google, what makes AJ think they can?

Re:Just as good as Google....

[MonsterChicharo]

Ask Jeeves' various search engines, which include Teoma, Excite and iWon, held a 6 percent share

Even at a 6% share it's a huge market. It is however difficult to get a better position by solely giving users the ability to save bookmarks. I already have bookmarks integrated in my browser of choice, thank you very much.

"Google is not better than us," said Jim Lanzone, an Ask Jeeves senior vice president

Go tell that to the 36% of the people that are using Google instead of Ask Jeeves

Re:What a crock of poo.

[grub]

I don't buy that. Internet Explorer defaults to MSN for its searches yet it isn't the top used search engine even though IE is still the top used browser. People have decided to use google over their default MSN search.

To outshine Google, filter Wikipedia clones

[ortholattice]

Jeeves people, read this if you want be distinguished.

One of the most infuriating things about Google is that when there is a match to a Wikipedia page, there may be dozens of Wikipedia spam clones that show up first. Besides barraging you with unwanted ads, these spam clones are often outdated, and special symbols such as in math formulas tend to be corrupted. Once you suspect your match is in Wikipedia, you often have to do a site-specific search for Wikipedia even to show up on the list.

Wikipedia is important enough that it deserves a special exception to whatever algorithm picks these spam clones first, if that's what it takes to do it. Google ignores this problem in spite of repeated complaints. Fix it, Jeeves, and I'll become a regular visitor.

Re:What a crock of poo.

[RenatoRam]

Yeah, right, like the marketshare of FF and Safari made google what it is today.

Don't be silly, please.

Google was already the best search engine out there, and outshining Altavista (previous top-dog), before the toolbars/searchboxes even existed.

Re:A Younger Jeeves

[theamarand]

Not only younger, but you'll notice, he goes from a gray pin-striped suit (almost like a butler) to a more managerial, executive, corporate-friendly guy.

Re:Oh re-hehehehe-eally?

[afidel]

Google still needs the NEAR keyword, or something of similar functionality. This little gem allows you to search for a set of common words that are not necessarily a phrase but where the returned resultset should prioritize those entries where the words occour in close proximity to each other. It's the one feature I REALLY wish Google had.