Jeeves to Show Fewer Paid Links Starting Tomorrow

In news that caused me to literally applaud, Ask Jeeves will be showing fewer paid listings above the organic results. Barry at Search Engine Roundtable had an opportunity to talk to Ask VP, Jim Lanzone about the change.

My summary of his notes: Jim said that AJ always wanted to lower the number of ads displayed but they owed it to their stockholders not to give up such a large revenue earner. When IAC President Barry Diller came on board, he was very interested in the long term of Ask and is willing to take the revenue hit for the greater good.

Of course, just yesterday Ask Jeeves announced that they will be premiering their own Sponsored Listing service. Dropping the number of ads displayed also means that they will push up the visibility and attractiveness of their own service and drop Google Adwords. All around, a great move.

Susan Esparza is former managing editor at Bruce Clay Inc., and has written extensively for clients and internal publications. Along with Bruce Clay, she is co-author of the first edition of Search Engine Optimization All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

See Susan's author page for links to connect on social media.