Friday, June 08, 2007
New Ask.com Takes Risks
Ask.com is attempting to break out from its fourth place standing with a bold redesign of the interface that is visually pleasing but has a few gaffes in organizing content.The new home page is clean, and the search results (with images on the right and smart use of color to differentiate results when scrolling) are easier to browse than Google.
I appreciate the organization of asking to refine results on the left, that natural results are above the sponsored results at the top of the page, and that images and dictionary results are on the right.
The navigational buttons are sharp, but why call local results "City?" Local shopping or travels usually extend far beyond your city proper, and what about the folks who live in towns or other hamlets that aren't cities? And which city are we talking about if you happen to live near both Oakland and San Francisco or Philadelphia and Camden? The interface for City is nice with related listings on the left and an always available search window, but the name must go.
Ask.com also continues to separate News from Blogs and RSS feeds. Most other sites put RSS feeds with news, while others also blend in blog results. This leads to the problem of what to do with all of the blogs on news sites. I say its about time that the world recognize that blogs (anything that has its own URL and not whomever@blogspot.com) are news, and need to be incorporated into news.
Ask.com has hit most of the right notes and may get a bump in market share from those willing to venture from Google. Will advertisers respond?
Posted By John Gartner at 09:57 AM
Permanent Link: New Ask.com Takes Risks
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