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Does Google still have all the answers?
The recent revamp of Ask.com begs the question, says Jonathan Weber
He's also not very shy, as evidenced last week in his company's re-entry into the Internet search business. Interactive Corp. last year acquired Ask Jeeves, the quirky but modestly successful search service that once promised to answer plain-english questions much better than anyone else (it never really did that.) Now Jeeves the butler is gone, the company has been rebranded Ask.com, and it's promising nothing less than to "take search to the next level".
Ask promises a variety of innovations, including proprietary technology that supposedly enables it to rank results based on "popularity within topic communities", not just link popularity (which is at the core of Google's technique). It has a somewhat different approach to contextual advertising, promising fewer ads on results pages, among other things. A new homepage design is Google-like in its simplicity, but offers all of the features of the classic Internet portal.
I don't pretend to have any idea whether the new Ask.com will make a dent. But it's emergence does underscore two of the most interesting themes in the next-generation Internet world. First, is Google far enough ahead on the core search technology that no one will be able to mount a challenge to its dominance? In the Eighties and Nineties, people came to view Microsoft as the "weather" in the tech business – it was just there and you had to deal with it. Is Google already at that point? Or will a new search challenger – be it Ask.com, or Bill Gross's Snap, or even Microsoft's upcoming service – be able to compete in the short term?
Most of the smart money thinks Google is already unassailable, but as the gyrations in its stock indicate, not everyone is sold. I'm not – I remember too well a conference panel back in 1999 when VCs were being ridiculed for funding Google and other new search plays. We already had Alta Vista and Inktomi and Lycos and Yahoo! – why would anyone need another search engine?
The second theme is a more intricate one, and has to do with the nature of Internet-driven change. Diller has built IAC on the premise that, in the end, people basically want to do what people have always wanted to do – socialize, have sex, buy stuff, enjoy great entertainment. At a conference last fall, he pooh-poohed the significance of blogging and the democratization of media, asserting that people with real talent have always been able to find an outlet. He's always enjoyed playing the contrarian against the hype – famously refusing to go through with an over-priced acquisition in the bubble years, and even betting heavily on downmarket home shopping.
The premise of Google, and of many so-called Web 2.0 firms, is ultimately very different. Now that people are empowered with technology that they have never had before, they are going to start doing things that they have never done before. They are going to interact and communicate in fundamentally different ways, they are going to acquire information and even knowledge in different ways, they are going to express their creativity and their frustrations, indeed, their basic humanness, in very different ways.
When you look at Sergey Brin and Larry Page, you see two guys who seem very different from the rest of us – and not just because they are billionaires. It's as if they are operating on a different plane of intellect and possibility. When you look at Barry Diller, you see a much more familiar character – the witty, clever, and sometimes-thuggish kid from Hollywood who scrapped his way to the top. It'll be interesting to see how they play.
Jonathan Weber is the founder and editor in chief of NewWest.Net, a new type of regional news and information service focused on the Rocky Mountain West in the United States. He was previously the co-founder and editor in chief of the Industry Standard