Ask.com Continues to Evolve

There has been lots of coverage throughout the blogosphere about Ask.com’s new experimental search interface Ask X. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive and I have to agree with most of them.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, differentiation should be a key strategy for any search engine looking to chip away at Google’s leading market share, given the habitual nature of users’ search behavior. Ask has executed this strategy more than anyone in the past year, starting with its February relaunch and ousting of Jeeves; through its recent AskCity launch; and up to this newest development.

Read more about the new product features at Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Land. In my own preliminary review of the site, the look is sharp and it has walked the challenging and fine line that plagues SERPs of having a useful and feature-rich format that isn’t too cluttered.

Interestingly, as a side note, the binoculars feature (also present in regular Ask.com search results) shows a cached copy of the old Kelsey Group Web site, which hasn’t been live in over a year. This was found after doing a search for “The Kelsey Group,” suggesting that many of the screenshots it has taken for this feature could be that old.

We’ll examine the site more closely and continue to analyze Ask’s rapid-fire feature development and evolution as a search engine and a local resource.