IAC's Ask.com Gets Thumbs Up Versus Google (GOOG, IACI)

The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg gave a glowing review to the redesign of the Ask Jeeves search engine, now rebranded and relaunched as simply Ask.com. Mr Mossberg's review is significant, not just because of his influence but also because of his focus on usability. Key excerpts, followed by two quick comments:

...Ads have been cut back to just three at the top and five at the bottom of each page, and they run on a colored background so you know they're not real search results. Instead of running ads down the right side of the page, as Google does, Ask uses that space to help the user refine search results.

In general, Ask's search-results pages are richer and better organized than typical Google results, and they give greater priority to content over ads.

...I did many other searches, with roughly similar results. Google usually did a good job, but Ask usually did just as well, and its added features made the results more valuable.

...Ask also allows you to save any entry in its search results to a special page called MyStuff. You can also save pictures, and even upload your browser bookmarks, then organize everything into folders.

The full review -- worth reading -- is here.

Two quick comments:

1. This is signficant for IACI because its share of the search market is currently so low -- estimates range from 4% to 6%, versus about 40% for Google and 30% for Yahoo. As IACI rolls out Ask.com search across its properties, Ask.com could gain a material percentage increase in market share.

2. As search becomes the on-ramp to more and more content, IACI has a chance to take market share in areas such as finance. Note that the results Ask.com delivers in response to a search for a stock ticker is currently better than Google and Yahoo.

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