Comments on: Goodbye Ask.com: A Brand Evangelist Hangs It Up

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:54:29 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. Ask (and others) can try and spin things however they want, but the truth is the engine is dead, regardless of what today’s SEW article wants us to believe. It’s time to find a new underdog.

By: Ross Dunn

Ross Dunn — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:45:53 +0000

Hi Lisa, you know I feel your pain. Perhaps not to the same extent but it was definitely heartwrenching news. I think Kevin Newcomb’s note today on SEW that we are all jumping to conclusions is off base. Firing Gary Price and giving up on their momentum in mainstream search says it all… no matter how they spin it.
RIP ASK.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:57:19 +0000

Ask was run by a ton of loser managers. The head of products was an ex-lawyer from Yahoo. His right hand man launched products that no-one cared about. A key engineering manager only worked at Ask and never had a job out of college anywhere else -- so poor experience. The heads of engineering are still active professors at Rutgers. The turnover in the HQ engineering office was atrocious. They would hire and fire people in 6 months sometimes (and thats if they stayed that long). Gary was on the payroll, but with a very dubious role. As a consultant sure, but as a full time employee? Don't know.

Safka [edited] up the communication internal and external. After 6 weeks on the job this is his great contribution...to go back to 1996?! Another 2-3% of the company resigned after layoffs. And do YOU want to work for a company that people describes at the search engine for desperate housewives?!! WTF?

[Edited for language -- Lisa]

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:23:11 +0000

It’s a pity about ask.com. I never liked its old style but the new version i loved.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:58:39 +0000

Very touching and emotional post. So much revolves around the bottom line for most companies today.

By: Darrell Long

Darrell Long — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:12:21 +0000

Hey Lisa, great post. I totally feel your pain. I have loved seeing all the changes with ask as of late and am very sad to see it end.

By: oakling

oakling — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:32:25 +0000

I used to love ask.com, back when I worked for it when it was Ask Jeeves, before the dot-com bubble burst. But I have to say, it has always suffered from the same problem that it has now: it couldn't just stick with one identity.

It has always and repeatedly, over the years, sabotaged itself (or been sabotaged) by changing what the search engine provides, trying to expand into applications, expanding into creating mini-Asks for corporate customers, changing what the search engine does AGAIN, dropping everything it was doing, doing something else, dropping that, changing the function of the search engine AGAIN...

This isn't new. It's the hopefully-last, very sad thrash of a good concept yanked around by a really dysfunctional/abusive corporate structure.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:19:44 +0000

Wow… Didn’t see this coming so quickly. I was just sitting with Patrick Crisp at SMX West and all seemed well.

By: Sante

Sante — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:54:05 +0000

I too have been an avid user of ASK over the past 6 months – there was a nice feeling and good quality experience as well – is it all really going down the drain ??

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:53:05 +0000

It’s definitely time to start looking at new engines, that’s for sure. My eyes are open.