Technologizer

Bing Gets a Jingle

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

I just this very moment formulated a new theory about search engines: It may be impossible to do good TV-style advertising for them. They’re free, you can try them at will, and if they’re not pretty self-explanatory, they’ve failed from the get-go. All of which makes it hard to spend thirty seconds saying anything useful [...]

The Return of Jeeves

Sunday, April 19, 2009

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I’ve written before that Ask.com has been a search engine that’s skittered from one advertising message to another for years. Now it’s trying yet another approach: Its original one! Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land brought to my attention the entertaining fact that Ask’s UK version has gone back to its first name, Ask Jeeves, [...]

Yahoo Glue: It’s Like Last Year’s Ask.com (and That’s Good!)

Thursday, November 20, 2008

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Last month, I groused about the fact that Ask.com had rolled out a redesign that did away with its clever melding of Web search results, images, news, video, and more on one page. Today, after a trial run in India, Yahoo rolled out a new service called Yahoo Glue. And I’m pleased to report that [...]

The T-List: (BlackBerry) Storm Rising

Saturday, October 11, 2008

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The T-Mobile G1, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, and now the BlackBerry Storm. The iPhone-like touchscreen phones are coming at us fast and furious. And while the Storm doesn’t look to be the mythical “iPhone killer” that folks like to talk about, it’s the most interesting iPhone rival from a hardware standpoint.

Ask.com: A Search Engine in Search of Character

Monday, October 6, 2008

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Observant readers may have noticed that my look at the new version of Ask.com contained no mentions of the fact that Ask used to be known as Ask Jeeves, pining for that old name, or clever butler references. That was intentional. There oughta be a statute of limitations on clichéd references to things which are [...]

The New Ask.com: A Little Less Distinctive

Monday, October 6, 2008

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I really liked the new version of Ask.com that arrived back in June of 2007–in part because it was so clearly not Google or a shameless Google wannabee. That version sported a three-pane interface that divvied results up into discrete sections for Web pages, news, images, video, and more. It was a strikingly different approach [...]