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AskJeeves Steps Into RSS with Bloglines Acquisiton

Posted by timothy on from the almost-but-not-completely-unlike-tea dept.

Sugarpimp writes "According to several sources, AskJeeves has stepped into the deep end of the blogging pool with an interesting acquisition. Bloglines is one of the premier RSS readers. Perhaps AskJeeves will be able to legitimize itself again in the crowded search market by integrating Bloglines into its suite of products."

62 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Step One by Adrilla · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Perhaps, this is step one in updating it's services. It's not nearly as effective as the other search engines.

    --

    "Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
    1. Re:Step One by Frymaster · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Perhaps, this is step one in updating it's services. It's not nearly as effective as the other search engines.

      1. buy bloglines
      2. ???
      3. profit!

      i've got a question for jeeves: how the hell are you going to make money with this?

      just askin'.

      --

      2 1337 4 u!

    2. Re:Step One by maethlin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Smells like FUD to me. A lot of people posting about how horrid Jeeves is, yet nobody yet stating why? Have you actually compared query results? These days I've found Jeeves results to be around equivalent to Google, and quite often more relevant since it is much less a target to spammers.

      Compare this to Yahoo and MSN results... (bad and abysmal, respectively) This leaves me using both Jeeves and Google about equally, but more and more I use Jeeves due to better results. If you want search only without any of the extra "smart answers" - you could also just use their backend via teoma.com.

      If you really wanna trash Jeeves, at least give us a real basis to do so. Me personally, I greatly dislike the Jeeves frame that stays up by default when you search (though this is easily turned off anyways, permanently if you wish).

    3. Re:Step One by newr00tic · · Score: 1

      .

      They're probably planning to TAMPER with the RSS content; stick in ads that bring them revenue, and such, what else can possibly be lucrative with this?

      I bet the copyright identity of most blogs are vague at best, so they can probably get away with messing with other people's intellectual property.

      .

      --
      A horse can't be sick, you know, even if he wants to.
    4. Re:Step One by maxume · · Score: 1

      Check out http://bloglines.com/topblogs. I bet somebody there might object to tampering.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    5. Re:Step One by nomadic · · Score: 1

      Smells like FUD to me. A lot of people posting about how horrid Jeeves is, yet nobody yet stating why? Have you actually compared query results? These days I've found Jeeves results to be around equivalent to Google, and quite often more relevant since it is much less a target to spammers.

      Jeeves may be better now, but it used to suck, and most people aren't going to keep checking old search engines to see whether they improved.

      Askjeeves' big problem in the beginning was they promised a method of searching that just didn't work. You used to ask them a question, and instead of giving you the answer they just grabbed keywords out of your query and did separate searches on that. Which I could have done myself if I wanted to. It looks like they've improved their parser a lot, but maybe if they'd done a better job in the beginning they wouldn't be doing so dismally.

    6. Re:Step One by JamesOfTheDesert · · Score: 1
      If you really wanna trash Jeeves, at least give us a real basis to do so.

      The *real* reason?

      Stupid name. Really. Ask Jeeves? For what? My socks? My breakfast? Bring the car around, Jeeves old boy?

      I just get this gut feeling that a company dopey enough to think that a frickin' butler was a good symbol for Web searching is not smart enough to deliver a quality product.

      --

      Java is the blue pill
      Choose the red pill
  2. bloglines news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dear Bloglines Member:

    Ask Jeeves has acquired Bloglines, and we're excited about becoming the newest member of their portfolio of web services. We view this as a huge step forward for Bloglines, and a chance to achieve our mission of making RSS news reading and blogging a part of everyone's internet experience. You can learn more about the transaction by reading our press release or reviewing our Frequently Asked Questions.

    We want to assure you that the Bloglines service will continue to grow and thrive. Like other companies in the Ask Jeeves portfolio, we will operate as a standalone, separate service -- the Bloglines name will remain, as will our URL, www.bloglines.com. We will support our current features and services, so please continue to log in to Bloglines to search, subscribe, publish and share RSS news feeds and blogs. All users will continue to be governed by the Terms of Service you agreed to when you registered for Bloglines.

    We have a great roadmap on how to integrate some of the many innovative technologies of Ask Jeeves, including its Teoma algorithmic search technology. As always, we will share news of our progress on our blog, Bloglines News. And we encourage you to participate in the conversation. Our users have been amazing help in guiding the evolution of Bloglines, and we hope you will continue to give us input so we can remain the gold standard in blogging, search, and news aggregation.

    We understand you may have questions about the acquisition and we'll try to answer them all as best we can. Please continue to contact our customer service with your questions and comments.

    Thanks for your loyalty, patience, encouragement and feedback throughout this exciting process.

    All the best,

    Mark Fletcher and the Bloglines Team

    1. Re:bloglines news by museumpeace · · Score: 1

      When did Bloglines send you this message?
      J. Paczkowski wrote about this yesterday. It was in the e-mail form of Good Morning Silicon Valley. Apparently Jeeves didn't control the story too well and it got out before they could make their official announcement.

      --
      SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
  3. Right... by eddeye · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps AskJeeves will be able to legitimize itself again in the crowded search market by integrating Bloglines into its suite of products."

    Because nothing says "legitimate" like blog.

    --
    Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch.
    1. Re:Right... by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      well.. i hear that bloglines is good for keeping track of any .rss. be it a blog or some other sources of information.

      i hear it's got a handy wap portion too.

      i don't use it though ;)

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  4. Confirmed by shodZ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Heres the official confirmtation

  5. I wish a search engine would read my mind... by ABeowulfCluster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    as in knowing my preferences... ie.. remember that I prefer NO BLOGS when I search for news.

    1. Re:I wish a search engine would read my mind... by jacen_sunstrider · · Score: 3, Informative

      Uh...bloglines if just the title. If you RTFA at all, you know that BlogLines is simply (though quite handily) a service for reading your daily RSS feeds. I mean, really, who's gonna use it to publish anything? Or search? I go through dozens of headlines a day with this service. Don't knock it just because they originally bought the domain with weblogs as their primary function. Give them credit for moving so well into this rocking new age of informational RSS feeds.

    2. Re:I wish a search engine would read my mind... by Donny+Smith · · Score: 1

      > as in knowing my preferences... ie.. remember that I prefer NO BLOGS when I search for news.

      Perhaps acquisitions like this could be good for ya - hopefully they'll make a separate search tab "Blogs" which should be quite easy to avoid. Until the acquisition the've probably searched everything at once.

      Hate blogs myself.
      99.9% of all blogs are absolutely worthless, (compared to about 95% worthlessness of the rest of the Web).
      Self-centered assholes before had to earn recognition on a forum or somesuch place, otherwise they'd be kicked/banned. Now it's so effortless - all one needs is a blog and they have the mandate for unlimited pullution of the Web.

    3. Re:I wish a search engine would read my mind... by JanneM · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the contrary, I really do want blogs to be included.

      It means someone else has already thought about whatever I'm searching for and taken some time and effort to collect links and write it up. The blogs that get ranked highly for a search are much linked to, and relevant to the search, which will tend to mean the writeup is not bad. If I search for a technical subject, more often than not the blogs I find will end up being written by the very people who create or work with the technology in question. I tend to find much better answers there than in general informational sites.

      Same thing goes for getting hits from mailing list archives, by the way.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    4. Re:I wish a search engine would read my mind... by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I can't believe how many people are banging on about blogging, like it's something completely amazing and new.

      8 years ago, there were millions of personal web sites, full of people's top 10 trek episodes. Now, I see an entry on somewhere like Boing Boing or Slashdot, and within 2 hours, it's on someone else's blog. No comment about it, no enhancement, just copy it. I think most blogging will be dead in a year or 2.

      If you are going to blog, try and follow the golden rule - make some content, or express an opinion that someone might want to read.

    5. Re:I wish a search engine would read my mind... by nagora · · Score: 1
      You really have the most distorted view of the steaming pile of crap that is the blogosphere I've read in years.

      Any search engine that finds a way to ignore blogs is going to have a realistic crack at Google (unless Google finally manage to filter them out itself, of course).

      TWW

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  6. AskJeeves by mikeophile · · Score: 4, Funny

    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

    1. Re:AskJeeves by rcs1000 · · Score: 1

      Nice. Unfortunately, from your link at least, not obviously true. Or am I being exceptionally stupid and wrongly accusing you of a heinous crime?

      --
      --- My dad's political betting
    2. Re:AskJeeves by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny
      Jeeves, what is next when jeeves fades into well deserved obscurity? Link

      Answer:

      Elitism for the Masses

    3. Re:AskJeeves by Xetrov · · Score: 1
      I felt compelled to follow that link to amazon, due to the mention of Claudia Black... What follows is a quote from this It Will Never Happen to Me by Claudia Black...

      I remember, as a boy, coming home from school and seeing either the living room or the dining room furniture thrown out in the driveway...


      Hrmm. I got a bit worried there, but it turns out that:

      1) That quoted bit was not actually by Claudia Black, but a quote from some bloke. ie: Aeryn Sun is not really a man. (phew)
      2) This Claudia Black is not the Farscape Claudia Black, and all this confusion was unfounded.

      So it's ok, I can return to the refuge of my fantasies.
  7. Ask Jeeves is still going to suck by poopdeville · · Score: 1

    Really.

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

    --
    After all, I am strangely colored.
    1. Re:Ask Jeeves is still going to suck by smitty45 · · Score: 1

      sucking or not, they have a better stock price than VA Linux does (i.e. slashdot).

  8. I tried ask jeeves once... by jihadi_fungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was having a bad day with google, and I was getting really frustrated. I submitted:

    "How the fuck can I get /boot to mount by default on gentoo?"

    It came back with a bunch of pr0n because of the F word...mount probably didn't help either :|

    1. Re:I tried ask jeeves once... by Gudlyf · · Score: 2, Funny
      ""How the fuck can I get /boot to mount by default on gentoo?"

      It came back with a bunch of pr0n because of the F word...mount probably didn't help either :|"

      Boatloads of shoe fettish pr0n I would guess...

      --
      Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
  9. Question. by FireballX301 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is acquiring a blog service in any way 'redeem' a search service? I don't use google because it has Picasa or Groups or anything. I use google because it has a no-frills, high quality search engine with a clean interface and relatively unobtrusive ads. I don't see AskJeeve's search engine as being anywhere near as good.

    So in essence, was getting the blog service good for the company? Sure. Was it good for the reputation of the engine? Hell no.

  10. Ask Who? by nate+nice · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Remeber when they had the highest IPO ever! It skyrocketed from like $5.00 to $130 in one day! Holy shit it must have been exciting working there at first assuming they gave away stock like everyone else. Anyone know what's it at now days? My guess is about $3.50. Maybe $5.00 but it cannot be anymore than that.

    Man, I totaly forgot that place existed. Does anyone actually use it?

    --
    "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
    1. Re:Ask Who? by loraksus · · Score: 1

      ASK JEEVES INC (NasdaqNM:ASKJ)

      Last Trade: 24.43
      Trade Time: Feb 7
      Change: Down 0.96 (3.78%)
      52wk Range: 18.90 - 44.66
      Volume: 6,196,602
      Avg Vol (3m): 4,900,045

      Not quite $5, but they were a few bucks shy of $200, so I'm sure there are a couple of pissed people somewhere.
      As for using it? feh, don't personally, never seemed to get good results, tho the "see what other people are searching for" feature was kinda interesting ;)

      linky for the untrusting

      --
      1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcfv gbhnjmk,l.;/
    2. Re:Ask Who? by nate+nice · · Score: 1

      Yeah I went to their site and saw that what people are searching for thing right away. My immediate and synical assumption is they are "interesting" threads that will result in advertisers links coming up more. I mean from a business standpoint that would be smart anyways. Or maybe it's just another stupid patent and they feel obliged to use it.

      --
      "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
    3. Re:Ask Who? by m50d · · Score: 1

      I use it. It is actually good at what it does, if you want an answer to an actual question like "how do I..." then it's better than google (where I usually end up just searching for ... HOWTO)

      --
      I am trolling
  11. Re:But the big question still is... by vikramrn · · Score: 1

    Then how do you explain Ask Jeeves Kids??

  12. I talked to Bloglines and Ask Jeeves about it by Marc+Hedlund · · Score: 3, Insightful
    And it's definitely true. I wrote up my conversation on the O'Reilly Network.

    In short, I think it's a good deal for Ask Jeeves. They're trying to compete with Google and Yahoo, and to do that they need to do something new. The user profiles Bloglines has would make a great tool for pricing Google AdWord-style text ads -- but the "oo" companies (G*gle and Yah*) don't have the same incentive to try something radically different. They're sticking with what works. Maybe by offering a richer profile to ad buyers, Ask Jeeves will be able to break into the search market more aggressively.

    More in the full blog post.

    1. Re:I talked to Bloglines and Ask Jeeves about it by Scott7477 · · Score: 1

      I like your "oo" companies reference-maybe this will become the next internet fad. "We must include the "oo" in the name of our website because "Google" and "Yahoo" have become so successful."
      I think I'll start up a new auction website...
      "OOBay"

      --
      "Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
  13. it's confirmed news by mallumax · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bloglines have confirmed it.
    Announcement page
    Press release
    FAQ about acquisition

    --
    TechSutra
  14. My personal motto: by mboverload · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "If it's not on Google, it doesn't exist"

    1. Re:My personal motto: by value_added · · Score: 1, Funny

      Well, then who are you?

    2. Re:My personal motto: by modifried · · Score: 1

      He's the guy that knows how to type his own name.

    3. Re:My personal motto: by mboverload · · Score: 1

      w00t, I have 10 pages of google results on me =)

    4. Re:My personal motto: by TheGreatGraySkwid · · Score: 1

      Or, in Latin (roughly):
      "In Googlis non est, ergo non est."

      --
      The Humblest Mollusk on the Net
  15. The ideal partnership by Kris_J · · Score: 1
    Two services obviously dumbed down so far that I can't correct for it enough to get anything useful out of either of them.

    If anyone wants to give me a step-by-step for Bloglines that results in me actually being able to read anything I've subscribed to, and doesn't use marketing speak, I'd be most grateful. Probably.

    1. Re:The ideal partnership by sab39 · · Score: 1

      Bookmark http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?all=1

      (this is the URL that displays in the right-hand frame when you click the root of your subscription tree).

      You'll get all new entries on all your subscriptions as they show up. But be careful not to close the window before you've read them all, because just visiting that URL marks them all as read and you can't get them back!

    2. Re:The ideal partnership by Kris_J · · Score: 1

      Thank you. BTW: I can't find anything that matches the description of "root of your subscription tree", nor have I ever seen anything that looks like the page you gave me the URL for.

  16. Re:Err by britneys+9th+husband · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not only are they still around, but their market cap is one point four two billion dollars. That's over twice the market value of Netflix.

    It's also over 10 times as much market value as VA Software. Which do you think is more likely to still be around in, say, 2015 -- Slashdot, or Ask Jeeves?

    Too bad short selling is so risky...

    --
    Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
  17. Good news by p0 · · Score: 1

    This is good news. Ive been using Bloglines for sometime now and the aggregator feature makes for any other RSS tool available for download today. However, the blogging feature itself needs some dressing up to match competetion like Blogger.

    --
    This is my sig. There are thousands more, but this one is mine.
  18. Intrigues by Sundroid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ambitious man, that Jeeves. According to a CNET report, About.com is now up for sale, and Ask Jeeves is one of the bidders. The intriguing element here is that Google is also one of the bidders, of About.com, that is. Here is the link to the article: http://news.com.com/Primedia%20puts%20About.com%20 up%20for%20sale/2100-1025_3-5566950.html?tag=nefd. top

    --
    Sun and Fun
  19. Ask Jeeves' Blog Post by wdr1 · · Score: 2, Informative

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

    --
    SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
  20. Bah! The bloggers by Yuruusan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Man, I had no idea Ask Jeeves was still around. It sucked way back, and probably will contintue to suck, and purchasing blogglines in no way of redeeming itself. I might be only one person with an oppinion, but when I read news, I want it to be just that, news not another worthless oppinion from another crazy dolt out there. If I want to hear someone ranting about the current headlines I go talk to a drunk. Not trying to troll here, I just see bloggers as a completely wortholess humans.

    --
    -My robotajem w kalhozie
    1. Re:Bah! The bloggers by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      why don't you use bloglines to follow up on news then?

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  21. Information OD? by womanfiend · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I run about ten RSS feeds on my Firefox browser that run the day's headlines and whatnot from leading news outlets and niche content providers of interest to me.

    I've tried some Blog RSS feeds, along with some other very-high-output feeds, and it strikes me as too damned much. RSS is great for something like Slashdot or The New York Times where there's an editor on the other end to hold back the content delivered to a sane amount, but the architecture (as in "really simply") of RSS, while certainly sufficently robust, just isn't well designed for a high volume of hits per feed. I feel like I've immediately OD'ed, badly, on information when I pull down the home feed for PRWeb.

    The solution? I shitcanned the PRWeb feed, even though I spend a lot of time on their website. And that's the fix, right there. Continuing upon the example, PRWeb's homepage is much better suited to sifting through the zillions of things they update all of the time than an RSS feed. Might the same apply to bloglines?

    --
    Jon Green Cheyenne
    1. Re:Information OD? by John_Booty · · Score: 1

      I run about ten RSS feeds on my Firefox browser that run the day's headlines and whatnot from leading news outlets and niche content providers of interest to me.

      [snip] ...I feel like I've immediately OD'ed, badly, on information when I pull down the home feed for PRWeb.

      I find that a good RSS integrator like BlogLines actually helps cut down on information overload. I use Firefox's RSS for several frequently-accessed sites that I like to have right on my bookmarks toolbar... such as some news sites, and my own site so I can see when people have posted articles on it.

      Then I have about 30 other sites that I subscribe to on BlogLines. Since Bloglines actually shows the article summary (as opposed to Firefox, which only shows the article titles) I can use BlogLines to quickly scan a large number of feeds. With article summaries I don't have to actually click the article to see if its relevant to me; I can just look at the summary and predict with high accuracy if it's something I want to read.

      I find that Bloglines has replaced all my aimless surfing. Instead of visiting 10 or so sites on a regular basis, I can efficiently scan 30 or so of them and therefore find much more useful/interesting stuff in less time. It's a much better use of my time. No, I don't work for Bloglines or AskJeeves. :)

      --

      OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
    2. Re:Information OD? by stevey · · Score: 1

      I find that sage is the perfect way to view 10-30 sites using firefox.

      It allows you to see articles, summaries, or just titles in a simple and easy to use way.

    3. Re:Information OD? by John_Booty · · Score: 1

      I find that sage is the perfect way to view 10-30 sites using firefox. It allows you to see articles, summaries, or just titles in a simple and easy to use way.

      That looks really slick. I'll have to give that a shot. Thanks!

      --

      OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
    4. Re:Information OD? by elronxenu · · Score: 1
      The problem with RSS is that if you subscribe to a few feeds, then you'll get the same news multiple times, from different sources.

      For example, that story about Saturn's pole being unexpectedly warm was carried on (at least) slashdot, space.com and "Yahoo News: Science". The more feeds you subscribe to, the more duplicates of the same story you will receive. The only way out is to only subscribe to feeds which do NOT report other peoples' news.

    5. Re:Information OD? by saddino · · Score: 1

      A few RSS readers on the Mac now support "smart feeds" which are basically filters such as "show me articles from all my scubscriptions with the words: blah, feh, huh"

      This is one solution to the information overload problem, but unfortunately, requires one to determine your interests ahead of time. It can be a good way to check up on the latest news about a specific subject, however.

    6. Re:Information OD? by glinden · · Score: 1

      I'm biased, but you really might try Findory. It's a feed reader that learns your interests, searches thousands of feeds, and helps surface interesting articles. It's all about avoiding information overload from RSS feeds.

      It's easy to use. Just click on a few articles. That's it.

  22. The official press release by yodha · · Score: 1, Redundant

    The official press release at Bloglines.

  23. Re:Rant by Scarblac · · Score: 3, Informative

    Boot doesn't really have to be its own partition. However, it is much safer to have it on its own partition, and not mounted in normal situations. That way you can never accidentally mess up something there and make your machine unbootable. It's a safety precaution.

    --
    I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
  24. Re:Rant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Like the others said, it doesn't have to be, unless you're wanting it for security reasons, or if you're using an old LILO that doesn't understand LBA and can't boot from a file higher than 1024 cylinders into the drive, in which case having a small partition at the beginning of the drive is a great idea.

  25. in other words by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bloglines Confirms: AskJeeves is dead.

  26. Re:Rant by m50d · · Score: 1
    It isn't necessary. I've done 3 installs and never used a separate /boot. No problems.

    And are you sure your ISP wasn't firewalling you to a certain extent? Or maybe some of the worms are actually starting to be got rid of.

    --
    I am trolling
  27. still disappointing, but the other way around by imr · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just tried your search in order to look what kind of porn it would bring, and it gave me only linux and gentoo related sites.
    Either they upgraded their search engine or they read slashdot.