Ask Jeeves is looking to strengthen its search engine
website with features, services and technologies found elsewhere in
its online network.
Ask Jeeves is taking an inventory to determine which of its
online offerings makes sense to replicate in its flagship web
search engine (www.ask.com),
according to company executives.
The plan follows Ask Jeeves' purchase of Interactive Search
Holdings, announced in March this year, which gave Ask Jeeves
several web properties including web portals Excite, My Way and
iWon.
"We own robust portal functionality and are actively exploring
integration of those tools and features into the Ask Jeeves brand
in ways that make sense," said Jim Lanzone, the company’s senior
vice-president of search properties.
The process has already started. Ask Jeeves boosted its flagship
search engine with a feature from My Way that lets users find show
times at local cinemas, said Daniel Read, vice-president of product
management.
"There will be a lot more examples of that," Read said. Online
communications overall is an interesting area, and within it a
likely possibility would be an Ask Jeeves-branded webmail service,
Read said. iWon, My Way and Excite all offer webmail services.
Ask Jeeves remains committed to having a variety of distinct
sites with their own identities and user experiences, Read said.
This is different from the web portal approach of rivals Yahoo and
Microsoft, which have a full suite of mass-market online services,
including search, under a single web banner.
"We have a multibrand strategy now, but the way people consume
internet services is always changing, so we are not discounting any
move," Read said.
One thing the company firmly believes in is that stuffing its
search engine indiscriminately with portal features would be
counterproductive, Read said. "A key thing for a search engine is
to keep it simple and not clutter it, because [clutter] turns off
users," Read said.
Still, with its plan to selectively seed the Ask Jeeves search
engine with complementary services and functionality drawn from its
portals, the company seems to acknowledge that loyalty among users
is generally very thin. A consensus among industry observers is
that providers of web search services must complement them with
other services that grab on to users more tightly.
Juan Carlos Perez writes for the IDG News Service