Ask.com: The Beginning of the End?
Posted: March 6th, 2008
As reported in a Wall Street Journal article yesterday, Ask.com has undergone some “restructuring” (a.k.a. layoffs) of its workforce. Forty people have been laid off, which actually accounts for a whopping 8% of the total staff over at Ask.
Now I understand the need for the occasional downsizing to stay ahead of the pack (or in Ask’s case - with the pack), but this latest decision comes packaged with a “reorientation”, as Ask’s new CEO Jim Safka has described it. This new strategy will be taking Ask out of the search engine game. Let’s look a little further.
According to Reuters,
[Ask] found that about 65 percent of its user base are women.
However, digging deep into data provided by Hitwise, this figure is only 57.85% as of four weeks ending March 1st. In fact, comScore reveals this number to be closer to only 55%. To make the right decisions, one should have accurate data at hand. Does Ask have it right, or do Hitwise and comScore?
With this 65% figure in hand, Ask.com will be going back to its roots a la AskJeeves and return to an archaic question-and-answer search engine format, catered to married women in their late thirties. Realigning to this “new” strategy is akin to waving the white flag.
Granted, 5% of the search market isn’t anything to brag about, but in the past year its search share was on the rise. Not only that, Ask was heading in the right direction too, especially with its adoption of universal search and its display of universal search results.
Tags: Ask, comScore, Hitwise
I also just got special ‘newyear gift’ form...
Seems like a good strategy. While I’ve never been a huge Ask fan, the Jeeves thing was their only truly unique point, and they should be making good use of it.
Kudos to Ask…. haven’t tried it for quie some time now… your post has motivated me to begin using it again…..