Rumors last week that Ask, the IAC-owned search engine, was about to cut 100 jobs overestimated the body count. In fact, Ask is trimming 40 jobs, or about 8 percent of its workforce. Newly appointed CEO Jim Safka, who replaced Jim Lanzone, is also going to refocus the brand to go after women in their late 30s and older, who already make up a disproportionate amount of Ask’s users (65 percent).
No word on what will happen to Ask’s Teoma search technology (the rumor was that Google would be replacing it, since it already handles Ask’s search advertising). Safka is obviously taking more of a marketing than a technology approach. But without improving actual search results (with technology), Ask is going to have a tough time maintaining its 4.5 percent market share. Ask’s search sites collectively brought in 41 million unique U.S. visitors in January, which was up from December and November, but still below October’s 44 million, according to comScore.
Sure hopes this works. Sounds gimmicky to me.
It seems like they are focusing on a target audience that will be very hard to take away from the major search engines. I do like how they are trying to compete in ways other then technology. But without competitive technology they are turning a cold shoulder to most internet users.
Is this 8% fat they are cutting or 8% of a core that will hurt them well into the future. Short of turning their website pink and having women showcase their shoe collections, I don’t exactly see how you “target” a female audience away from using Google.
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
Ask.com going down, index never update, inquiries never answered and search results always outdated. No wonder they think a less techie audience is what they should aim for. They are wrong.
What a loser management team. Their head of products (do they still have more than one?) was a lawyer at Yahoo. Wooohooo! Their CTO (do they still have more than one?) is a bitter old man from a B-rate comp. sci program (ie Rutgers). Safika? Well looked at what happened to HSN — it tanked and is now getting spun out.
The bottom line for me is that Ask.com’s search results are inferior to those I get with Google and Yahoo, which makes them basically useless. Barry Diller, Interactive’s CEO, made the terrible decision to spend $100M last year on Ask.com marketing, but this is an area where all of Interactive’s marketing dollars can’t put lipstick on a pig and call it pretty. Are older women less astute about search results? I don’t think so, and the whole planned campaign looks like a huge insult to them.
@Everett: Gimmicky is right.
Safka is way over-matched for this job. He’s a pitch-man and political animal, but not a good marketer, and certainly not a good product guy or organizational leader. Isn’t it too late for a marketing-driven approach for search? Mighta worked in 2002.
With Safka it’s all about keeping his boss happy, even if the strategy and game-plan is off-track. I’m sure Barry “Algorithm” Diller likes his story. That’s all that matters at IAC, I suppose.
Ask is in serious trouble…
Ask.com needs to innovate or die. Cause this is not cool. This is lame.
Lol Ask is so lame, does anyone even use it anymore?
Ask.com is like the odd guy at the office who announces that he’s gay and is opting for a sex change operation….
Ask.com has a great graphical interface and a great brand… their search, however, is not as good as Google or MSN (from personal experience)…. I think they should just outsource their search results…
more of my criticisms here:
http://chide.it/post/53/
Apparently tons of people have resigned (are you ready to service “desperate housewives”?). A number of people have been moved to “new venture” or “consulting” positions. So they probably have or will lose about 12% or more of their staff.
Hmmm, interesting idea. But, i think they are definitely in the right area. The Married women is one of the biggest but untapped markets out there… For example, go check out http://www.listentoyourwife.com.
They might sound like a site for angry women, but it’s definitely in the same space as ask.com is aiming for.