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Ask.com's 'Information Monopoly' Campaign Against Google Doesn't Go Over So Well
from the time-for-a-new-agency dept
A few weeks ago, we pointed out a new ad campaign by Ask.com in the UK that warned users to "Stop The Online Information Monopoly", and was designed to look like some sort of underground movement designed to stop the vast Google conspiracy. Rather than boost Ask's meager share of the British web-search market, thus far, it looks like all the campaign is doing is annoying people. The comments on the campaign's web site are filled with complaints (and comments from authentic conspiracy theorists) about the campaign and the quality of Ask's search results. The reaction to the campaign highlights the potential backlash that can occur when consumers figure out who's behind attempts at viral marketing, but it also underlines a more important point. If you're going to compare yourself to the market leader, you'd better have more to offer than just some attempt at a clever marketing campaign.
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
Why does the link for "annoying people" go right back to this entry? Oh this is all so confusing!
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"Why does the link for "annoying people" go right back to this entry? Oh this is all so confusing!"
Too subtle for you? You're not American by any chance are you?
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Yeah, me too. every time I click that link it just comes straight back here. It's so, so, what's that word ... ?
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Sorry, I bungled that link. Fixed now.
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What is viral marketing
Seriously, I have no idea what that means...
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do they have anything to do with the billboard i saw in NYC the other day that says, "The algorithm killed Jeeves"? Or is that a competitor? I thought irrelevance killed Jeeves, not an algorithm.
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do they have anything to do with the billboard i saw in NYC the other day that says, "The algorithm killed Jeeves"? Or is that a competitor? I thought irrelevance killed Jeeves, not an algorithm. Ask.com used to be called Ask Jeeves
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Don't you people get it? Its a recursive search thingie that... well...
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I thought the site was quite clearly related to slash made by ask.com....
whats the big deal?
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that site sucks. looks like there will be some positions opening up in a marketing firm somewhere. oh, well...I got a chuckle.
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I am always hearing "Experts" say that ask.com is the more technically advanced search engine. Well, great. When they can put their search box, with national news, next to local news, next to Techdirt, with my e-mail (which they would need to provide an advanced e-mail expereince to go with it), personalized favoraites, my stock portfolio..... on my homepage - I may start using their search engine.
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I am always hearing "Experts" say that ask.com is the more technically advanced search engine. Well, great. When they can put their search box, with national news, next to local news, next to Techdirt, with my e-mail (which they would need to provide an advanced e-mail expereince to go with it), personalized favoraites, my stock portfolio..... on my homepage - I may start using their search engine.
Quoted for truth
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Viral Marketing is
the attempt to create a video or similar media that someone sees and HAS to share with his or her friends. Then they see it and spread it out...like a virus.
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Re: Viral Marketing is
Oh, I always wondered what that meant.
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Google wins without even having to do anything but be itself. awesome
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I just returned from London... These ads were all over the underground trains. "75% of all internet users get their information through one company" made me to go the website, which was easily identifiable as being run by ask.com. It isn't viral, the ads had small print that said ask.com.
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I work for the corporate giant that fuels ASK.COM...they have no clue. As previously stated..."Google wins without even having to do anything but be itself. awesome"
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Idiots
These are the same ppl who complain about Microsoft's products but offer no decent competitor to the space.
Google wins because (warts and all) its the best... at least for now. Like iTunes (as much as I personally dislike iTunes), it wins because it does enough right to better than everyone else.
Whining about it won't help you ask.com, offer us something better.
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Spyware Company?
For years I've been cleaning FunWebProducts, IWon.com and MyWay.com spyware off people's computers.
Imagine my surprise when I noted the same company that runs Ask.com runs those spyware companies.
Now they're misleading people to make money... wait a minute, that's what they've been doing for years and years! That's their business model.
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Google helps scary authoritarian autocratic govern
The simple facts are:
1)
Brin and Page have had an argument over where beds are to be situated in their party boy private Boeing 767. They claim to be green and drive Prius , but they can blow 20,000 gallons of JetA on a soirée.
2)
They have generated this wealth in part helping a large scary autocracy suppress protests and information and people en masse (Falun Gong, Dissidents, etc). That government is Hu Jintao's/Wen Jibbao's China. You can act green and have love for the worlds people and prop up an autocracy (arguable while making money in an emerging authoritarian autocracy, the former USA). Google has had a hand in killing and imprisoning people whose crimes are not even crimes in the USA, in fact, there are laws in place against assisting governments persecuting people - these clearly aren't enforced.
I only hope someone can start deflating the Google bubble. If this is the best thing to happen in the USA in the last 6-7 years, prepare for the end of American hegemony.
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