- March, 2005: IAC announces plans to buy Ask Jeeves
- April, 2005: Nothing significant happens for almost a year
- February, 2006: In a landmark move to improve user experience and search quality, Ask drops its butler mascot
- May, 2006: Influenced by IAC, Green Giant brand drops its mascot in an effort to improve the quality of canned peas—comes to senses 30 minutes later and reinstates the giant (OK, I made that one up)Qe at doing exactly the same thing a year earlier
- March, 2007: The South Park kids announce to the world that nobody uses Ask Jeeves in the “The Snuke” episode
- April, 2007: Ask’s creative shop Crispin Porter & Bogusky effectively generates awareness of a term no one understands or cares about—”the algorithm”
- May, 2007: The Algorithm fails to find itself an audience– in spite of media initiatives from May 2006 to May 2007 Ask.Com percent of US searches falls to 3.92% from 4.40% according to Hitwise
- June, 2007: Ask 3D is launched in response to Google’s Universal Search
- July, 2007: No one hears about 3D ever again. Wall Street Journal runs a piece on search engines, Ask.com Is not referenced
- October, 2007: Ask Launches PPC Bid Platform 2.0—the exact number of advertisers who noticed the change
- December, 2007: Hoping to capitalize on media hyped privacy panic; Ask offers to delete search data even if people don’t opt out after 18 months
- January, 2008: Nothing really happens until Ask closes its search doors over 2 years later
Full article at Advertising Age http://lnkd.ca/ch