Last month, Ask.com relaunched its site and lost its butler. But somewhere, Jeeves must be smiling: over the past week or so, Ask has started picking up some good news that coincides with a blitz of well-received TV advertising. First and foremost, a modest gain in the search market: four paragraphs down in this Reuters story is the news that Ask.com was the only engine not named Google to record an uptick in search share (from 5.3 to an even 6).

Today, the Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg gives the revamped Ask a stellar review after comparing its searches head-to-head with Google’s. While he says there’s no reason to abandon Big G, he likes many of Ask’s user-friendly features that make its search results “more valuable.” He praises what Ask calls the ‘zoom’ feature, links along the right-hand side of the page that suggest ways to narrow, expand or find related search results. He also likes the ‘binoculars’ tool, a way to preview some websites before clicking on their links just by rolling the mouse over a binoculars-shaped icon. He was also a fan of Ask’s cleaned-up results page, with fewer ads and more distinct differentiation between paid and organic listings. Coming from someone who says he wouldn’t have recommended Ask in its previous incarnation, the review almost amounts to adulation.

Since Ask’s retooled map feature wasn’t within the scope of Mossberg’s article, we’ll cover it here. Full disclosure: we like it. Lots. It compares favorably with old stalwarts like Mapquest and Yahoo! maps, and even gives Google Maps a run for it’s money. Both Ask’s and Google’s maps use easy-to-read draggable interfaces that reload, center, and zoom in or out fast, and both offer useful driving directions. But Ask also optimizes its routes for travelers on foot, which comes in handy in cities, or any other location with lots of one-way streets or anti-pedestrian thoroughfares like freeways. And while Google Maps can handle only two-stop trips (with a return), Ask lets you add up to ten destinations for a multi-stop journey – and then walks you through a turn-by-turn slideshow of your trip. Lastly, unlike the pinpoints on Google’s maps, those on Ask’s can be moved around with a mouse, and relocating them results in a corresponding update to your routes of travel. If there’s a caveat, we have heard that Ask’s maps are significantly slower to load on older machines.

So Ask’s product is improved, but are they getting the word out? And would people start using it more if they heard about it? The answer to the first question is “yes.” Ask is running two TV ads nationally which imply that using Ask makes people “feel human.” If you’re a DVR junkie who shuns commercials, the Ask.com blog has helpfully posted the ads for anyone who wants a look-see. They didn’t skimp on the monkeys, so if you love monkeys (and who doesn’t?) make sure you’ve got Quicktime running, then go ahead and check them out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2006 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Search: Innovations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.