October 7, 2008 by Matt Thomas
In an attempt to build its market share at the expense of market leader, Google, Ask.com is drastically changing its search engine. The new Ask is expected to deliver quicker results and greater relevance than previously. According to CEO, Jim Safka, the new search is 30 percent faster and, in early tests, has increased the rate that customers return to use the site by 16 percent.
With the top three search engine providers reportedly distracted at the moment – Yahoo and Microsoft, by persistent merger talks and Google, by a myriad of non web projects – this could well be the perfect time for Ask to strike. However, they certainly can’t be overconfident, considering psychological and, real terms dominance of Google, who, according to web statistics firm, Comscore, currently enjoy a huge 63 per cent of the market share.
Improved market share would also increase Ask’s independence. Most of the company’s revenue currently comes from an advertising deal with Google very similar to the one currently proposed with Yahoo.
“We view this as a 24-month window of opportunity,” said Safka to Reuters earlier in the week. He may well be right. However, it’s going to take something awfully good to challenge the position of most people’s default search engine.
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