Any one seen the sad anti Google advert?

[Martinscholes]

In the UK there has been a silent video advert asking if it is sensible for the vast majority of searches to be made using one search engine? (Google)

And asking shouldn't you be searching with Ask, instead?

I stopped using Ask and started using Google some years ago because I found that Google provided a better service. And in my opinion it still does.

How sad that instead of promoting itself in a positive way, Ask has to stoop to running a 'pity party' advert!

[cz]

Kind of a whiny version of the old time Avis "We're #2 and we work harder" genre. I totally agree, people will tend to migrate to the best solution given a long-enough timeline.

[jackit_chick]

How about a link to that ad please?

[bj]

That kind of thing just ends up sounding desperate, and I doubt highly anyone will choose the more desperate of two choices, at least in my opinion.

Though I admit I search in a fairly narrow bunch of areas, where there isn't high commercialization, and hence, less incentive to game the system, I still find google's returns to show better relevancy, which is why they're still my SE of choice. And yes, I do try the others occasionally, since I'm actually hoping for a shake-up. But truthfully? I haven't tried "Ask" since they ditched the butler (that was them, wasn't it?)

[RegDCP]

What is "Ask"?
< grin >

Reg

[Matteo]

Ask is spending a LOT of money trying to re-establish itself in the search engine market. Try looking at the advert (which I haven't seen because there is no link ;o) ) from the point of the view of the common internet user. There is alot of momentum captial to be gained if Google is made to look like the rich corporate giant....instead of the trendy search engine. I'd like to see commercial

[Peter (IMC)]

Sounds like election campaign tactics,.. lol.

This is what is likely to happen:

1) People go to Ask.com UK - The Other Search Engine
2) Wonder why it redirects to uk.ask.com while it says ask.co.uk in the image in the page.
3) do a search
4) wonder why the results are separated
5) realize that the separation is caused by a mouse over effect
6) Try to do another search
7) search for the search box,.......... ah in the left column.


Funny thing is that Ask is putting Ask at the top when searching for: search engine. That feels like manipulated results,.. (Yahoo! does that too by the way, but Google and MSN don't)

[Reason]

I use Ask occasionally and I like it. I find its results as relevant as Gs - often more so. Sounds like the rest of you are not concerned with one corporation controlling access to information. Personally I am very concerned. In spite of Gs reputation of doing no evil, they are an American corp whose very charter mandates profit before people, profits at any cost. I want balance. Yahoo's blown it. Live Search is sad, but Ask is beginning show promise. I haven't seen the commercial, but if its message has been accurately conveyed, I applaud it.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by RegDCP

What is "Ask"?
< grin >

Reg

If you have to Ask, ... .

[Peter (IMC)]

they are an American corp whose very charter mandates profit before people

We´re not an american company, but profit before people is a good thing if you ask me. It secures the jobs of the people.

[CyberCrone]

"We´re not an american company..."

Not an American company? From Wikipedia: "Google Inc. ... is an American public corporation..."

By "we" do you mean to imply you work for Google? Then how do you explain this discrepancy?

[chrisJumbo]

And Ask isn't in it for the profit? Aren't they trying to take away profit from Google? How is Ask making the world better for the people?

A business can not stay in business without a profit (American or otherwise).

They should focus on what makes them better and different.

cd :O)

[whipnet]

Originally Posted by CyberCrone

"We´re not an american company..."

Not an American company? From Wikipedia: "Google Inc. ... is an American public corporation..."

By "we" do you mean to imply you work for Google? Then how do you explain this discrepancy?

I think Peter meant to say "His" company is not American but abides by the same money before people policy as Google does.

*

[cz]

I think he's referring to his own company cybercrone - or the one he works for? sorry for the cross-posting : (

[seoimage]

They should focus on what makes them better and different.

Well said chrisJumbo.

That's what Apple seems to be doing very successfully. Apple is now a "Cool" company. I could have told you that in the 80's.

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by CyberCrone

"We´re not an american company..."

Not an American company? From Wikipedia: "Google Inc. ... is an American public corporation..."

By "we" do you mean to imply you work for Google? Then how do you explain this discrepancy?

lol, no I don't work for Google. I meant my own company and we´re not located in the USA either. I just think it is better to make a profit if you want to do the best for the people. Actually one goes with the other. When you do good for the people, they will do a better job. And if you make sure a profit is made, the people will feel much better about the work they deliver.

Quote:
They should focus on what makes them better and different.
Well said chrisJumbo.

That's what Apple seems to be doing very successfully. Apple is now a "Cool" company. I could have told you that in the 80's.

And apple isn't in it for the profits? They own 75% of the "plugs in your ears" market. They over price their products enormously because they sell "cool". Nothing wrong with that, but if you talk about profit over people, Steve Jobs is the CEO of putting people down. Product goes before the people with him. At least that´s what I read about him.

Added: By the way, I don't think that it is a bad thing to put your products in the first place. In the end, what´s best for the company is best for the people that work for it.

[Martinscholes]

The advert was appearing at icBirmingham - news, sport and entertainment for Birmingham (website of my my hometown newspaper!) but seems to have vanished over the past few days.

Maybe Ask realised how sad it made them look?

And do I care about using Google as it is so big? No. Because isn't that like deciding to use a skateboard instead of a car because Ford are a big firm?

[glinted]

I do hope we see more competition in the Search market in the future, I'd like to see it where 4 or 5 se's are all up there fighting for a share of the market instead of just google, Google has too much power & I'd like to see that power shared around so consumers & Internet developers have more choices and options in many other areas because once you have domination of search then you control many other parts of the Internet as well as we have seen with Google. It is up to us to not all be sheep and start been more versatile and open minded.

Try new things, dont be afraid of change and experiement!

[Martinscholes]

Mind you, the only reason Google have grown so big is because they do what they do so well.

They also provide extra services and facilities that people might like to use.

Of course, if other people come along and provide an equally good service, people will use these, too.

[Martinscholes]

I found a slightly shorter version of the advert. On Google Video/YouTube!

YouTube - Ask.com 'Information Revolution' 10-second TV advert

I tried to find it on ASK. After several pages of utterly irrelevant sponsored results, I gave up.

Could THIS be one of the reasons why people use Google rather than ASK?

[Kribensis]

I found it on YouTube

YouTube - Ask.com UK Commercials

and just look who posted it there !!!!

[Martinscholes]

So ASK uses Google?

I think that this just about says it all, really!

[justicewhite]

I am not in any way associated with Ask and I don't use it for searching. But I like the ads and I think it is time someone (maybe not necessarily Ask) challenged Google. In my view G is turning into Microsoft of 1990s and people seem to think that a virtual monopoly in the search market by G is acceptable.

[Mads Dam]

It's hard to think of Google as a monopoly, after all you have Yahoo, Msn, etc...

But then again, does anyone remember the 80'ties?

There were 3 different windows systems, and you did have a choise.

But now...?

[crdesign]

I find it funny when companies or people talk about monopolies when they have a choice. No one is telling people to use google. I can't think of a single time someone has said to me "wow, I wish there was another search engine to use", not ever.

Made up monopolies are fun, people whine because google does such a good job that other search engines can hardly compete. How insane is that? That's like saying "you know Bob you do a really good job here at our business, but all your co-workers are a little scared of how well you perform. So in order to make them feel better we are going to fire you and hire 3 people who we hope combined are as good as you."

It's just like when people complain to me about Wal-Mart.... if you hate it so much, go somewhere else and pay a little more. Don't whine and then say it's because Wal-Mart is at fault. If you are worried about google taking over everything, stop using them 100% of the time. Learn to live with irrelevant results and everything else that comes with it. Eventually if enough people stop using them the other company will become the made up monopoly and you can look for your next crappy SE.

[leesw]

LOL....so ask.com is crying like a little kid saying, "It's not fair, it's not fair!"

Awww....poor babies. Welcome to the business world. In it you beat your competition by out performing them, not by complaining how being number 4. If ASK is even number 4.

[bj]

Yes, I do wish that another search company will step up to the plate.

But Ask isn't doing it. Not with their search results (I just compared) and definitely not with this annoying and idiotic grunge commercial. That music is SERIOUSLY annoying. If they were aiming for "edgy" they sure missed the target.

[leesw]

Oh they're edgy alright.....putting me on the edge of death by annoyance.

[dharrison]

OMG That is like fingers down a blackboard twinned with scraping metal on metal. Ask have had a string of naff adverts recently and this just justifies their desperation.

Have they thought WHY Google are good? For a start they should sack the ad agency/marketing department.

[Martinscholes]

Thanks for the full horror of the Ask pity party advert, Danny!

My god! It was even worse than I feared!

The underlying message that I got (almost hidden by the crap music!) was this:

"Hey. We at Ask know we are utter crap. But guess what? We are not going to try to do better. No, instead we are just going to get a low grade agency to produce a second-rate pity party anti-campaign, whilst WE continue to provide a third-rate Search service!"

[dharrison]

Originally Posted by Martinscholes

Thanks for the full horror of the Ask pity party advert, Danny!

My god! It was even worse than I feared!

The underlying message that I got (almost hidden by the crap music!) was this:

"Hey. We at Ask know we are utter crap. But guess what? We are not going to try to do better. No, instead we are just going to get a low grade agency to produce a second-rate pity party anti-campaign, whilst WE continue to provide a third-rate Search service!"

Thats funny. :lol

"What do Google have that we haven't got??" (** other than a butler **)

"Oh and sidenote, we have f**k all budget and pay peanuts to our Ad agency, hence the monkeys."

[Martinscholes]

Originally Posted by dharrison

Thats funny. :lol

"What do Google have that we haven't got??" (** other than a butler **)

"Oh and sidenote, we have f**k all budget and pay peanuts to our Ad agency, hence the monkeys."

By the way, you know when they were forced to change their name from Ask Jeeves to Ask by the estate of P. G. Wodehouse?

They claimed copyright on the name Jeeves.

However, a bit of research by Ask would have found out that P. G. Wodehouse was a gatherer of facts and of names. He based a school he wrote about called Wryken College on a real college called Wrekin College, in Wellington, Shropshire.

It is claimed that P.G. stayed at a nearby country manor house that had a butler. Who was called... Charles Jeeves! Oops!

[braver55b]

I wonder if its sponsored by ask? If it is, it really is pathetic, I strongly believe that the market should decide instead of an undercover whiny ad which only wants more eyeballs so they can justify charging outrageous amounts for their ads (sponsored search, banners etc)

[Martinscholes]

Originally Posted by braver55b

I wonder if its sponsored by ask? If it is, it really is pathetic, I strongly believe that the market should decide instead of an undercover whiny ad which only wants more eyeballs so they can justify charging outrageous amounts for their ads (sponsored search, banners etc)

The adverts were made for Ask. Ask had it posted to YouTube, too.

[incrediblehelp]

I found the fake underground, grassroots campaign they tried a few months back very funny. So bad. Trying to get conspiracy theorists backing them and avoiding using Google, when both company's do the same thing!

[Martinscholes]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I found the fake underground, grassroots campaign they tried a few months back very funny. So bad. Trying to get conspiracy theorists backing them and avoiding using Google, when both company's do the same thing!

Hmm. Launching a fake 'underground' campaign against a business rival? I do hope Ask cleared that through their legal advisers in all of the countries that the campaign operated under. As I feel that it could well have serious legal implications. The EU, for exampe, take a dim view of such nonsense!

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I found the fake underground, grassroots campaign they tried a few months back very funny. So bad. Trying to get conspiracy theorists backing them and avoiding using Google, when both company's do the same thing!

Wauw, I wonder what Ask is thinking.... A kind of Neo-Hippy approach against the established Google order?

After seeing that video I felt like Ask is an extremely chaotic, unorganized company that has unemployed people on welfare working for them.

[tombstoneweb]

Ummm.... Isn't it just advertising?
That's what they do.

[jtracking]

Originally Posted by RegDCP

What is "Ask"?
< grin >

Reg

Oh? Here I did a search for ask.com on google for you...

ask - Google Search

: )

[dharrison]

Originally Posted by Martinscholes

By the way, you know when they were forced to change their name from Ask Jeeves to Ask by the estate of P. G. Wodehouse?

They claimed copyright on the name Jeeves.

However, a bit of research by Ask would have found out that P. G. Wodehouse was a gatherer of facts and of names. He based a school he wrote about called Wryken College on a real college called Wrekin College, in Wellington, Shropshire.

It is claimed that P.G. stayed at a nearby country manor house that had a butler. Who was called... Charles Jeeves! Oops!

Did he look anything like Stephen Fry?

[khurramali]

One thing that i noticed when i visited the ASK website is that they have tried to copy the layout of Google.

This shows that they are following in the foot steps of Google.

But they should compete fairly with Google.

Instead of their current stooped marketing campaign, they should focus on the benefits of using their search engine for businesses.

I think they should position themselves in the verticle search market.

[Martinscholes]

Originally Posted by dharrison

Did he look anything like Stephen Fry?

I somehow doubt that! But who knows??

[Martinscholes]

Originally Posted by khurramali

One thing that i noticed when i visited the ASK website is that they have tried to copy the layout of Google.

This shows that they are following in the foot steps of Google.

But they should compete fairly with Google.

Instead of their current stooped marketing campaign, they should focus on the benefits of using their search engine for businesses.

I think they should position themselves in the verticle search market.

Or in the horizontal search market as in: "Oops! We have fallen on our arses!"

[Kate Lennon]

Sorry, but (as usual) I disagree with most of the "takes" on this.
Google has become a huge pain in the ass. It has a virtual (!) monopoly of the internet.
Sure, that may be because it was a superior search engine than the others (and/or it had cleverer marketing than the others), but it has now become way too big for its boots, imo. When you have a situation where millions of online companies around the world are dependent on one search engine to keep them in business, you have a serious problem in the making. As a famous British peer once noted, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Google has too much power. It has become a monster Pac Man, gobbling up everything in sight on the web. It competes with the websites it is supposed to be indexing, and then has the brass neck to offer these same websites various prepaid options to get more page views. The bulk of the revenue generated on the web is scooped up by Google, while most other online companies have to settle for the crumbs.
I have to hand it to Google's PR department for the positive "spin" they always put on Google's greedy practices. Google doesn't sell positioning or PR (oh dear, no!): but you can have your listing indexed more frequently if you pay; or you can have it appear at the top of search pages (of course, it will then be an "advert" or a "sponsored listing").
And then there is a long list of rules that you have to obey if you don't want to upset Google (because if you upset Google your site will be wiped off the face of the internet).
You musn't sell links, for example, or Google will send you to oblivion. But Google itself can sell links until the cows come home.
Google is a big, fat, greedy monster. For years it has been getting away with sharp businesses practices (as in sharp enough to cut your throat) that would not be tolerated for one minute in any other business sector; and it has achieved this through fiendishly clever self-promotional marketing and PR.
The sooner Google is confronted with healthy competition (and I for one will support any fit-looking contender), the better it will be for the web and for every person whose livelihood depends on it.

[Martinscholes]

Originally Posted by Kate Lennon

Sorry, but (as usual) I disagree with most of the "takes" on this.
Google has become a huge pain in the ass. It has a virtual (!) monopoly of the internet.
Sure, that may be because it was a superior search engine than the others (and/or it had cleverer marketing than the others), but it has now become way too big for its boots, imo. When you have a situation where millions of online companies around the world are dependent on one search engine to keep them in business, you have a serious problem in the making. As a famous British peer once noted, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Google has too much power. It has become a monster Pac Man, gobbling up everything in sight on the web. It competes with the websites it is supposed to be indexing, and then has the brass neck to offer these same websites various prepaid options to get more page views. The bulk of the revenue generated on the web is scooped up by Google, while most other online companies have to settle for the crumbs.
I have to hand it to Google's PR department for the positive "spin" they always put on Google's greedy practices. Google doesn't sell positioning or PR (oh dear, no!): but you can have your listing indexed more frequently if you pay; or you can have it appear at the top of search pages (of course, it will then be an "advert" or a "sponsored listing").
And then there is a long list of rules that you have to obey if you don't want to upset Google (because if you upset Google your site will be wiped off the face of the internet).
You musn't sell links, for example, or Google will send you to oblivion. But Google itself can sell links until the cows come home.
Google is a big, fat, greedy monster. For years it has been getting away with sharp businesses practices (as in sharp enough to cut your throat) that would not be tolerated for one minute in any other business sector; and it has achieved this through fiendishly clever self-promotional marketing and PR.
The sooner Google is confronted with healthy competition (and I for one will support any fit-looking contender), the better it will be for the web and for every person whose livelihood depends on it.

But a competitor running a FAKE 'conspiracy loony-friendly' campaign is not healthy competition.

If Ask wants to be a contender as a serious search option it should take three simple steps.

1) Work harder.
2) Stop whining.
3) Run no more fake 'underground' campaigns against rivals.

It's not rocket science, is it, Ask?

The trouble is whenever Ask says anything it is always drowned out by a loud whining noise.

And I refuse to use an inferior search service just because Ask thinks I should.

[mightyword]

Originally Posted by Martinscholes

But a competitor running a FAKE 'conspiracy loony-friendly' campaign is not healthy competition.

If Ask wants to be a contender as a serious search option it should take three simple steps.

1) Work harder.
2) Stop whining.
3) Run no more fake 'underground' campaigns against rivals.

It's not rocket science, is it, Ask?

The trouble is whenever Ask says anything it is always drowned out by a loud whining noise.

And I refuse to use an inferior search service just because Ask thinks I should.

I think you missed out 4) come up with a better product.

Ask is not all that, is it?

[Martinscholes]

Originally Posted by mightyword

I think you missed out 4) come up with a better product.

Ask is not all that, is it?

Yes, that's a good point, mightyword.

"Come up with a better product!"

My god, Ask! Mightyword has cracked it for you! All you, Ask, have to do is come up with a better product!

What's that you say, Ask? You don't want to come up with a better product?

Oh well, mightyword, we did try our best!

[mightyword]

Originally Posted by Martinscholes

Yes, that's a good point, mightyword.

"Come up with a better product!"

My god, Ask! Mightyword has cracked it for you! All you, Ask, have to do is come up with a better product!

What's that you say, Ask? You don't want to come up with a better product?

Oh well, mightyword, we did try our best!

.

I must say I wasnt expecting the trolling to start on my very first post. ..still some forums are just full of them

but it was actually a semi-serious comment though, as the few times i've tried to use Ask, the results have been pretty poor by comparison.

you can advertise something all you like, but when people come to the page if it doesnt deliver, they wont come back. i wont be until it does.

[Martinscholes]

The thing is Mightword, jokes to one side, if Ask DID provide a good service, as both you and I sugested, people would still be using it.

I used Ask over Google, until Ask stopped providing what I considered to be a good, useful service.

Then I migrated to Google. And Google is the search engine I use in the main, to this day.

[mightyword]

well, yea exactly. me too. whinging and bitching about a monopoly when your competition are just plain better than you is stupid, IMO.

I also migrated to G (from yahoo) all those years ago because of better results.

Occasionally i do check to make sure there isnt something better yet, and unfortunately, there isnt.