An Open Letter To Ask.com – Where Is It?

Dear :

I’ve been watching your most recent television ads that show off your blended search results by demonstrating a search for "" and felt compelled to write a blog post about the commercial.

First, of course, I had to try out your demonstration search. So I typed "eagles" and out popped some search suggestions from the search box but as I continued to type and my search filled out to "eagles 0f"…, you no longer had any suggestions for me:

Ask.com Search Suggest - eagles of death metal - 10/07/07

Really?!? No suggestions, even though you’re currently running an ad using "eagles of death metal" as a demonstration search? Couldn’t you have reasonably expected that people would conduct that search as a result of your TV commercial?

I admit but this time I was planning on writing about your new ad and that you too are offering .  So I went to and searched for the new ad but all I got were old TV spots. I widened my search by doing the same at . No luck. I tried and and and . Still no luck.

Then I had the belatedly brilliant idea of searching you, Ask.com. Surely you would be able to find the video for your own TV commercials. Not so much:

Ask.com TV Commercial Search - 10/07/07

Not only did you not find for me, you found none of your TV ads at all, at least .

It’s not that I don’t like you, I’m just disappointed in you, Ask.com. You told me how great you are at finding stuff, but you can’t even find stuff in your own backyard.

There are a zillion people smarter than I who can help you improve your algorithm but I could lend you a hand on the side of things.

Give me a call.

See Also:

4 Comments

  1. isedb.com on October 8, 2007 at 5:46 pm

    An Open Letter To Ask.com – Where Is It? – Internet Marketing Blog

    Ask.com can apparently find everything but stuff in their own backyard.



  2. isedb.com on October 8, 2007 at 10:46 am

    An Open Letter To Ask.com – Where Is It? – Internet Marketing Blog

    Ask.com can apparently find everything but stuff in their own backyard.



  3. Benjamin Hiatt on October 17, 2007 at 4:41 pm

    I’m a fan of Eagles of Death Metal, so when I saw the search ad I went straight to Ask.com to see if they were the plethora of information they claimed to be.

    Once I typed the whole thing in the page looked just like the one they showed on the ad, but no search suggestions. Even now, two weeks after the ad aired, still no suggestions. Surely enough people attempted that search to trigger something.

    Maybe there isn’t anything to trigger?



  4. Benjamin Hiatt on October 17, 2007 at 9:41 am

    I’m a fan of Eagles of Death Metal, so when I saw the search ad I went straight to Ask.com to see if they were the plethora of information they claimed to be.

    Once I typed the whole thing in the page looked just like the one they showed on the ad, but no search suggestions. Even now, two weeks after the ad aired, still no suggestions. Surely enough people attempted that search to trigger something.

    Maybe there isn’t anything to trigger?