Today marks the end of Ask.com, or Ask Jeeves as most of us will remember from the big marketing push the company had in the early days after it started in 1996.
It was a search engine I only tried a few times but rarely had any luck with, so never had a reason to switch from Google (a position that I’m sure I share with many). It’s more proof that those companies that don’t innovate will crash and burn, especially with the speed that online technology and customer expectations increase. Ask never really seemed to improve their service and pushing a product that doesn’t match up to its competition doesn’t work for long.
So Ask’s little remaining market share will go to Google, Yahoo and Bing and other smaller search engines, but in general search seems to still be Google’s territory (though Bing is slowly, slowly gaining some ground).
This nice (if a little old) infographic below shows Google’s fails and successes over time, proving that continuing to make new products is the key to success and that it doesn’t matter if some ideas fail if it means others keep you innovative and relevant in today’s market.
RIP Ask!! For I never knew thee
http://www.runtobefit.wordpress.com
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GOOD
A “LIVELY” list of Google Genius at work.:)
http://www.mediabastard.wordpress.com
Experiments are good, but they need to be “kept” in a lab and then ever tested restricted to their effects, not ‘released” globally at a click, and “then” hope you can monetize them, or use them to get famous.
This ethical issue is where Google and most code tech true believers , fail.
No more Ask Jeeves? But now how will I pointlessly surf the Web not finding what I’m searching for?
Oh, wait, there’s still AltaVista.
Haha so right! Thanks for stopping by my blog too
[...] http://claresiobhanpr.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/innovate-or-perish-a-lesson-learnt-by-ask-com/ [...]
Whoa thank you for very comprehensive listing of some axed google products! Didn’t know of all of them. Definately goes long way to show that even the biggest of the companies can’t always get it right!
Just goes to show you to never give up. With success comes failure, but likewise with failures comes success.
Blessings,
Ava
xox
More like Buzz-KILL, AMIRIGHT!?!?!?!
For those who want to help a charity of their choice or just charities in general, use GOODSEARCH.COM and they will donate to a charity every time you search either your choice or the charity of the day. Good way to help others and find out your info.
Just goes to show, failure is never final – and the mega success of Google as a business is the proof.
Hhere are a few things you didn’t know on how to use Google search -http://bizsetup.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/how-to-use-google/
interesting topic…
Do like the idea of huge success story having a few failures in its cupboard. Makes those of us still holding nto that idea that just wont fly, more inclined to let go and get the momentum rolling again
Yay Google!
It’s what makes Google so like-able to me, the idea that they don’t mind trying new things and that failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to learn from and improve.
I’ve been saying for years that Google is the next world power. Great post.
Haha I wouldn’t be suprised! They product range now is so diverse it’s just scary…
Speaking for myself, I see the problem elsewhere: An original idea that did not work in the first place.
As for innovation, that need not be a good thing (although it often is). Google, in particular, is destroying the value its search service brings by too much “innovation”. Simply put, Google should stop second guessing the user as to what the user actually wants—offer help, but do not shove it down the users throat. (This to be contrasted with more positive innovation by Google that provides entirely new services.)
Similarly, too much misguided innovation is a reason why I recently stopped using Opera.
[...] stumbled across this freshly pressed blogpost and definitely shines the light on the fact that news internet ideas come [...]
Maybe so many of these failed because no one knew about them! Google’s main page doesn’t advertise anything (Chrome was out for weeks before I’d heard about it), I’ve never heard of most of these products and I’ve been using the internet since ’96. I know Google doesn’t like to clutter the main page, but a little self promotion couldn’t hurt!
I think Google has always relied hugely on word-of-mouth and sharing, which is the nature of the internet. I can’t fault them for it, it really works! Plus the products that do get a lot of promotion and a big push and then fail (Buzz) look worse than those that quietly make an exit…
I think in the future though we will be seeing a lot more promotion for Google, I remember seeing my very first Google Chrome billboards and just being like ‘Woah, so Google is doing huge print ads now…’
Great article. Forgot about the Google Video Player and adoseofbuckley makes a good point. You have to look for Google’s offerings or catch news somewhere else. They release a good deal of projects and don’t seem to push them.
Good articles, thank’s for interested sharing information
Like the blog content. Have a good knowledge more, Thank you.
To those that say the problem is Google not advertising these products enough, I don’t think that’s the point.
In many cases the products didn’t get past Beta stage and weren’t openly available to the public, such as Google Wave. If even invited ‘early adopters’ don’t like something, it’s an indicator that generally the public won’t either. I was invited to use Google Wave and used it for a couple of days and found it to be completely overly complicated and a total mess. I never used it again after that. And I work in IT, so if I found it confusing what are the general public going to think.
I think for this very reason Google don’t advertise these products so much, i.e. if they develop a new product, open it for Beta use, it fails, they cancel it, no one really noticed it anyway so it doesn’t stain their reputation.
And Buzz? Why do companies bother to even try to compete with Facebook. The only successful alternative social networking sites to emerge since Facebook have been Twitter and Four Square, and both are quite different to Facebook, offering a different angle on the social networking experience. Buzz is just a poor man’s Facebook offering nothing new, along with whatever rubbish MSN are now pedalling.
Totally agree with you regards advertising and how sometimes it pays not to push your products. The two products with the most hype, Wave and Buzz, both crashed and burned as a result of over hyping whereas other Google products that slowly built up credibility and a big audience have become very successful.
I do find it sad that no one can really compete with Facebook, but at the same time even if another company created a better product and we all moved over to that, I feel like it would be a case of same problems, different website. The privacy issues surrounding Facebook are the same that any company with that kind of size and uptake face so as much as we love to hammer Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg, it would just be the same bad-guys with a different name.
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a great comment btw
Interesting things I never knew about Google. Did you find them by googling Google? Just the fact that Google became a verb shows it’s dominence in the search engine market. I’ve never heard anyone say “I think I’ll ASK that” . Congrats on being Freshly Pressed.
I love that Google has become a verb, is there any greater success for a company when it name just becomes part of our everyday language?
Thanks for the congrats, it was all very exciting (geek)!
Google is my favorite basic search engine, but I rarely find its other features useful. I’ve used Google Scholar a few times, but even then there’s not as much information as you’ll find through your school library.
Google Scholar was only really useful to me a few times. Google Books, however, has saved my university life countless times.
[...] or perish, a lesson learnt by Ask.com November 11th, 2010 | Author: wpuser Innovate or perish, a lesson learnt by Ask.com … Today marks the end of Ask.com, or Ask Jeeves as most of us will remember from the big marketing [...]
Well, those must’ve been “live” only a short while…lol… I don’t remeber seeing any of them…lol! I’m not surprised about Ask.com. Well, I am surprised it lasted THIS long…lol.
Hey Clare! Great post. In today’s volatile social media and search engine segment of the WWW, it is not hard to imagine a complete downfall, a total “crash and burn” as you put it. I think that innovation is simply a small modification these days (for example, Facebook once used to be a small modification of the overly crowded MySpace pages; however, it looks exactly like MySpace now). I think Ask had potential, it just didn’t live up to the immense competition and Google’s dominance.
Totally agree with your comment, I think Ask.com fell into the same trap that MySpace did on not really trying things new or listening to your audience. Luckily MySpace had its rich music user base to fall back on, and I hope its rebrand and site shake-up goes well, I once spent a lot of time on the site and a community for music enthusiasts sounds like a good plan!
[...] Posted November 12, 2010 by inislamicworld in news, food. Leave a Comment Today marks the end of Ask.com, or Ask Jeeves as most of us will remember from the big marketing push the company had in the early days after it started in 1996. It was a search engine I only tried a few times but rarely had any luck with, so never had a reason to switch from Google (a position that I'm sure I share with many). It's more proof that those companies that don't innovate will crash and burn, especially with the speed that online tech … Read More [...]
I remember making a full-scale website on Google Pages only for it to be closed down and migrated to Google Sites. I guess this is why HTML and CSS rule!
google dishes out the best search results, period.
It seems that you can’t beat Google just by “doing the same”. Google’s algorithm for searching on the web, is probably still the best one.
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