Ask bite back...or do they?
Date Published 12/04/2007 - Click here for more recent news
That (fairly) well known search engine Ask (formerly known as Ask Jeeves) is floating an innovative approach in trying to undermine (for want of a better word) Google's current overwhelmingly dominant market position in the UK search industry.
They've come up with an ad campaign that's predicated around the 'big-brotherish' notion that anybody (they don't actually name The Big 'G') having such a dominant position isn't necessarily a good thing! Yeah, well it's obviously not a good thing for Ask revenues for starters - is it?
Here's a bit of their pitch, "Did you know that more than 75% of people in the UK use just one search engine to find information? The same search engine. The biggest search engine. The most popular search engine. Why? It's not that there aren't choices, it just seems that most people don't use them.
You can imagine we were rather curious about this, so we did some research and found that 62% of Internet users don't think about which search engine they use. We call that sleep searching, you probably call it 'getting stuff online'.
But statistics aside, if this keeps up, who knows what could happen? One company could eventually be your only source of access to information on the Web! Controlling your mind would only be a step away! Then they'll have you. All too easy...
But this is 2007, not 1984. So we're speaking up before things get out of hand. Raging against the machine kind of thing. The machine of conventional wisdom if you like!"
So under this guise of freedom of choice for searchers Ask are inviting searchers to think about using search engines other than the dominant one! Nice idea?
Well just think about this - what if everybody actually took some notice of the Ask campaign and so many people were moved by their exhortations to search elsewhere, that the dominant search engine became Ask! Well do you think they'd still be pushing the 'freedom of choice' mantra then? Or would they be calling for a bit more market research that tells a slightly different tale. Yep, you guessed it.
And as for Ask wrapping themselves in this 'freedom of choice' shroud - don't forget that this is the company that changed hands for $1.85bn (£970m) as recently as March 2005 when the internet investment firm headed by US media mogul Barry Diller bought Ask Jeeves - at which time Bazza said, "Ask Jeeves has the potential to become one of the great brands on the internet". Well Bazza, 2 years down the line how's that forecast looking?
But where Ask ultimately lose the EASIserv.com vote on this particular proposal is when they wheel out in support of their proposition, (amongst others) that well-known intellectual and student of individual freedoms - Peaches Geldof!!
Anyways, if you want to read more and/or join in the Ask campaign - have a look at: http://www.information-revolution.org/index.php
Update 20/04/07 : I was picking through the UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2007 today and spotted where they'd got a bit of market research that tends to support the Ask campaigns point of view?
The UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2007, carried out in association with search agency Neutralize (*\*), contains a comprehensive analysis of the UK Search environment.
- Google is viewed as the best search engine across a range of criteria. However, half of respondents believe that Google has an unhealthy dominance of the UK search marketplace.
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