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Revision as of 15:24, 8 May 2017 by 150.199.206.26 (talk) (→History)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) | This article needs attention from an expert in Companies. The specific problem is: the section on the toolbar controversies lacks a clear chronology regarding the time of its resolution, if it indeed has fully occurred. See the talk page for details. WikiProject Companies may be able to help recruit an expert. (January 2016) |
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| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Type of site | Answer engine |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | June 1996; 28 years ago (1996-06) (as Ask Jeeves) |
| Headquarters | Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Owner | IAC |
| Created by | Garrett Gruener David Warthen (Founders) Douglas Leeds (CEO) |
| URL | www |
| Registration | Optional |
Ask.com (originally known as Ask Jeeves) is a question answering-focused e-business and web search engine founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California.
The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine. In late 2010, facing insurmountable competition from more popular search engines, the company outsourced its web search technology and returned to its roots as a question and answer site. Douglas Leeds was elevated from president to CEO in 2010.
Ask.com has been criticized for its browser toolbar, which has been accused of behaving like malware due to its bundling with other software and the difficulty of its uninstallation.
Three venture capital firms, Highland Capital Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, and The RODA Group were early investors. Ask.com is currently owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC) under the NASDAQ symbol Nasdaq: IAC.
Ask.com's corporate headquarters are located at 555 City Center, in the Oakland City Center development in downtown Oakland, California.
==History=ed conversati
Corporate details
Ask Jeeves, Inc. stock traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange from July 1999 to July 2005, under the ticker symbol ASKJ. In July 2005, the ASKJ ticker was retired upon the acquisition by IAC, valuing at US$1.85 billion.
In 2012 Ask.com made two acquisitions as part of a larger strategy to offer more content on the Ask.com website. On 2 July 2012, Ask.com purchased content discovery start-up, nRelate, for an undisclosed amount. That was followed by the company's acquisition of expert advice and information site About.com, which closed in September 2012.
On 14 August 2014, Ask.com acquired popular social networking website, ASKfm, where users can ask other users questions, with the option of anonymity. As of 14 August 2014, Ask.fm had 180 million monthly unique users in more than 150 countries around the world, with its largest user base in the United States. Available on the web and as a mobile app, ASKfm generates an estimated 20,000 questions per minute with approximately 45 percent of its mobile monthly active users logging in daily. To date, the mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times.
Toolbar criticism
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The Ask browser toolbar is an extension that can appear as an extra bar added to the browser's window and/or menu. In early versions, it was often unintentionally installed during the installation of partner software, including Oracle Java, i.e., taking advantage of a user's lack of technical experience. As an operating business of IAC, Ask Partner Network had also historically entered into partnerships with some software security vendors, whereby they distributed the toolbar alongside their software. Installer packages for partner companies had an option (opt-out) to install the Ask toolbar and/or change the user's default browser home page to Ask.com.
Ask.com and its parent company IAC have therefore been criticized for promoting a toolbar that behaves like malware—that it was surreptitiously bundled with legitimate program installations, e.g., Oracle's Java, that it could not be easily removed from common browsers once installed, that consumers installed the software unwittingly, that the toolbar redefined the user's home page to Ask.com, and that Ask.com presented biased search results. As early toolbar versions could not be easily removed using built-in uninstall features, it was considered a "potentially unwanted program". A further criticism was a ten-minute delay that was built into the installation, between updating Java and appearance of the Ask toolbar. The company defended these early business decisions, pointing out that instructions to remove the toolbar could be found at the Ask.com Help Center.
As of June 2015, Ask.com no longer bundles with Oracle's Java (which now features a Yahoo!). As of June 2015, Microsoft does not consider the toolbar that is being provided by Ask.com to be unwanted software, but they state that older versions of the toolbar pose "a high threat to your PC," and they provide tools for detecting and removing them.
Marketing and promotion
Apostolos Gerasoulis, the co-creator of Ask's Teoma algorithmic search technology, starred in four television advertisements in 2007, extolling the virtues of Ask.com's usefulness for information relevance. A Jeeves balloon appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade through 2000-2004.
After a hiatus from mass consumer marketing, Ask returned to TV advertising in the fall of 2011 after refocusing its site on questions and answers. Instead of national advertising, Ask focused on local markets with basic creative. In the summer of 2012, Ask launched a national cinema campaign, along with other out-of-home tactics in certain markets such as New York and Seattle.
As part of a Seattle-based local market effort, Ask.com launched its “You Asked We Answered” campaign in 2012, in which the company “answered” residents' top complaints about living in their city, including easing morning commutes and stadium traffic, as well as keeping the local Parks and Rec department wading pools open.
On 14 January 2009, Ask.com became the official sponsor of 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Bobby Labonte's No. 96 Ford. Ask would become the official search engine of NASCAR. Ask.com will be the primary sponsor for the No. 96 for 18 of the first 21 races and has rights to increase this to a total of 29 races this season. The Ask.com car debuted in the 2009 Bud Shootout where it failed to finish the race, but subsequently returned strongly, placing as high as 5th in the 1 March 2009 Shelby 427 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ask.com's foray into NASCAR represents the first instance of its venture into what it calls "Super Verticals".
References
- "Ask.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- Kopytoff, Verne G. (9 November 2010). "Ask.com Giving Up Search to Return to Q-and-A Service". The New York Times.
- "IAC Management". IAC. Archived from the original on 5 January 2012.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - "Ask Jeeves, Inc. initial public offering prospectus". Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - de Senerpont Domis, Olaf. "Q&A with Ask.com's CEO and nRelate's Founder". The Deal Pipeline. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Stewart, Christopher. "Times Co. Sells About.com for $300 Million". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
- Magid, Larry. "IAC's Ask.com Buys Ask.fm And Hires A Safety Officer To Stem Bullying". Forbes. Forbes. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- Curtis, Sophie. "Tinder owner buys social network ASKfm". The Telegraph. The Telegraph. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- Sullivan, Laurie. "Ask.com Acquires Q&A Social Network Ask.fm, Prepares To Add Tools To Increase Safety". Media Post. Media Post. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ Perez, Sarah. "IAC Agrees To Work With Regulators On Cyberbullying Protections Following ASKfm Deal". Techcrunch. Techcrunch. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ Bott, Ed (22 January 2013). "A Close Look at How Oracle Installs Deceptive Software with Java Updates" (online). ZD Net. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
Oracle's Java plugin for browsers is a notoriously insecure product. Over the past 18 months, the company has released 11 updates, six of them containing critical security fixes. With each update, Java actively tries to install unwanted software. Here's what it does, and why it has to stop… IAC, which partners with Oracle to deliver the Ask toolbar, uses deceptive techniques to install its software...The Ask.com search page delivers inferior search results and uses misleading and possibly illegal techniques to deceive visitors into clicking paid ads instead of organic search results.
- "Ask Partner Network". Retrieved 20 November 2012.
- "Ask Help Center". Retrieved 5 May 2016.
- Heddings, Lowell (19 February 2013). "The Shameful Saga of Uninstalling the Terrible Ask Toolbar" (online). How-To Geek. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
If you managed to get infected with the absolutely terrible Ask Toolbar on your computer, don't be ashamed – it could happen to anybody. Especially considering that is bundled with the equally awful Java runtime. Those people should be ashamed of themselves.
- "PC Magazine: How to Remove the Ask.com Toolbar From Your Browser". uk.pcmag.com. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
- Rashid, Fahmida. "How to remove the Ask.com Toolbar from your browser". PCmag. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- "Oracle will continue to bundle 'crapware' with Java". Computerworld. 28 January 2013.
Bott found that the Ask.com toolbar was not immediately installed, but waited 10 minutes after Java finished to kick in. "I've never seen a legitimate program with an installer that behaves this way", said Bott
- McKirdy, Eric. "Ask.com Help Center". Ask.com. Ask.com. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- Keizer, Gregg (12 June 2015). "Microsoft deletes older Ask.com browser toolbars, but ignores Oracle's new crapware" (online). Computer World. Computerworld.com. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
Microsoft took what appeared to be a shot at Oracle's wallet this month when it switched on search-and-destroy in its security software for older versions of the Ask browser toolbar, which has long been bundled with Java even in the face of users' complaints.
- "Microsoft Malware Protection Center - BrowserModifier:Win32/AskToolbarNotifier". microsoft.com. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- "About Ask.com: TV Spots". Archived from the original on 10 April 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Ha, Anthony. "Ask.com Returns to TV, Cautiously". AdWeek. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- Vega, Tanzina. "Ask.com Heralds a New Focus". New York Times. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- Sandoval, Greg. "Hey, Times Square! I'm Google+. Please Notice Me". CNET. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- Sullivan, Laurie. "Ask.com Launches 'You Asked' Branding Campaign". Media Post. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- Official Release (14 January 2009). "– Ask.com enters NASCAR with multi-faceted program". Nascar.com. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Duane Cross. "Labonte will drive No. 96 for Hall of Fame in 2009 – 14 January 2009". Bbs.cid.cn.nascar.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - Archived 31 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- "Ask.com Partners With NASCAR, Says "Super Verticals" Will Put It Back In Search Race". Searchengineland.com. 13 January 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
External links
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