One thing I have heard about Google - many of it's employees come in after-hours to help improve the engine for particular keywords which aren't displaying the best results. Google is definitely passionate about providing helpful results - which is exactly what users want.

The basic idea of Ask is attractive - just type your question, any question, and it will bring up results to help you find the answer. But are they helpful results? Sure, you can easily make good results for common queries (such as 'why is the sky blue?') but does the search engine adapt to less-common queries?

I would have to say my favourite thing about Google is how it keeps it simple - it's the same interface it always was. Ask has dropped Jeeves (the top question for 'what' is 'what happened to Jeeves?'), changed their layout around - changed their entire philosophy around practically!

The big question is 'why switch?'. Ask is trying to answer it by fear - but who is better to trust with my information than Google? Ask is trying to answer it by upgrade - but I like the interface simple. Ask is trying to answer it by marketing - but most of the world already knows about them. Ask needs to answer it by result!