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.

Re:Perpetual also-rans have a place in this world.

[3terrabyte]

Different flavor, as embarressing logo.

Also, they didn't mention one very important thing. Google's Cache. Extremely important in many of my searches where ANY reference to something is needed, even an old link...text only.

CACHE!!

Re:Perpetual also-rans have a place in this world.

[afidel]

One little trick I use which is often helpfull for eliminating the online retailers that have google bombed is to use -shipping at the end of my search. This will generally eliminate sites wishing to sell me the product and leave legit sites with info about the product alone.

Flavor?

[Chagatai]

"We are both operating at a world-class level. We just have a different flavor."

Kind of like pork ice cream.

Re:Flavor?

[ackthpt]

Kind of like pork ice cream.

Or from one of the Simpsons episodes, where they visit a dollar store and pass a stack of cases of

Cool Ranch Cola

My stomach turns every time I think what that might be like.

What a crock of poo.

[grub]

"Ask Jeeves is touting its service as more user-friendly because it doesn't require the installation of any toolbars or software programs."
FUD. Google and other search engines don't require toolbars or software installation.

"The next generation of search isn't going to be about who can build the biggest indexes (of Web pages)," said analyst Charlene Li of Forrester Research. "It's going to about finding better ways to personalize search results and modify the way the results are presented."
That's outright idiotic. I want the most relevant search results based on the largest index possible.

I just 'asked jeeves' to look up my real name in quotation marks: 481 hits. Google? 1420. A quick glance to the last hits on Google are indeed relevant. What has AskJeeves missed? Google isn't going to rest on their laurels, AskJeeves will be playing perpetual catch-up. Now when have you heard "Ask Jeeves" used in the common vocabulary? What about Google? It's a used as a verb now.

Not better

[Negatyfus]

"Google is not better than us," Jim Lanzone of Ask Jeeves said. "Google is nowhere near as good as we are! In fact, Google does not exist! They are nowhere near Bagdhad! And we have shot down one of their Apache helicopters!"

I've seen this before....

[Anonymous Coward]

... by adding new tools for visitors to save and organize links to Web pages they find through the company's online search engine.

I liked that feature better the first time, in the original Mosaic browser, when they called it "Bookmarks."

A Younger Jeeves

[TheJavaGuy]

It looks like Mr. Jeeves got a lot younger.
Before:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030324210627/http://a sk.com/

After:
http://ask.com/

Who?

[StevenHenderson]

I had never heard of Ask Jeeves until I googled for it.

Rest of the quote

[revery]

"Google is not better than us," said Jim Lanzone

They just deliver better results and are more useful to the average user. And if that makes them better... [whispers to aide]what was my point again[/whisper] ...we have a cartoon butler!!

deifnitely !

[bwy]

it deifnitely appears to be a critical time for search engines.

It also deifnitely appears to be a critical time for dictionary.com.

I just 'Asked Jeeves' something.....

[HerculesMO]

Query: "Does AskJeeves suck?" First Hit Title: "10/19/1999: ASK JEEVES is the worst site on the internet" I'd say it works pretty well... :)

Why is this so difficult?

[Control Group]

They don't Get It(tm).

That's all there is to it. Based on this blurb, I went to look at Ask Jeeves, and see what they had to offer. Ran a search, clicked on a result - and they lost me when they kept control of a portion of my browser window so I could run another search.

I don't understand why so many companies don't understand such a simple concept: get off my back. Isn't Google's example clear enough for them? I like Google because it's fast and accurate, by and large. Because it's a simple page that loads quickly even if I'm somewhere on a dialup. It doesn't pop windows over or under my browser window. In short, Google acts like they want to help me, rather than like they want me to help them.

That's all there is to it. I can't think of a feature a search engine could add that would overcome Google's interface advantage. To get my clicks, another search engine would have to have an even more simple interface, and I see that being hard to accomplish.

Wait, I lied. If a search engine was able to somehow figure out what I mean conceptually rather than contextually, I would use it all the time...but since that would require an almost human level of language comprehension, I don't think I'll need to worry about switching any time soon. As it stands, AJ's "natural language" abilities were just "we won't tell you we ignored 'of' and 'the' in your search request."

Re:Oh re-hehehehe-eally?

[RealAlaskan]

... you mean like ~detect~? Seems to have a wildcard function to me..

That's not wildcard, that's synonym searching. From the Google docs:

" ~" Searches

You may want to search not only for a particular keyword, but also for its synonyms. Indicate a search for both by placing the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of the keyword.

For example, to search for food facts as well as nutrition and cooking information, use:

~food ~facts

Google does do wildcards, but only in quoted strings. They don't seem to have documented it on their website, but I've found it here, among other places.

Google search tip: wildcard word (*)

Google treats "*" as a wildcard meaning "any word". You can use it in phrases to: Ignore unimportant words

* "all but * anything but" (vs, and)
* "shanked * jengaship" (my, your, his jengaship)

Fill in phrases where you don't know a word

* "phyllis * tam" pomona (a middle name)
* "the * family is my boss" (hard-to-understand song lyrics from a song in Office Space)

See how people have filled in expressions and jokes

* "185 * walk into a bar"
* "friends don't let friends * *" (*'s at the end just keep the phrases from being cut off in snippets.)
* "* is to * as * is to *"

Crudely "search by proximity"

* "The shareware version * 10 levels"
* "The shareware version * * 10 levels"
* "The shareware version * * * 10 levels"

It's pretty powerful, but it's only in what google calls a ``phrase search''.