Exclusive - New Ask.com User Interface Video Demo
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |
By now, you should have heard that Ask.com has radically changed their user interface. They’re taking a bold step in overhauling the way people interact with a search engine, creating a 3 panel view of your search query.
Jordan and I sat down at SMX with Ask.com’s user experience guru, Michael Ferguson, and got an exclusive video walk-thru. We’re very impressed and believe most Ask.com users will be too. The trick for Ask.com is to now spread the word about the new interface.
The room we used was dark, so you’ll barely see Ferguson, but you’ll see plenty of the new interface, and Ferguson shares some great info, not found on any other site. Another Marketing Pilgrim exclusive! 
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June 5th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Thanks for the video Andy. I haven’t had the time to really play with the new Ask interface yet, but I did try a few quick searches earlier and I liked what I saw.
I’m impressed with the thought and testing Ask put into developing the interface and while it’s a big change and a big risk my initial thought is they’ve made a good decision.
Hopefully the advertising campaigns will get better.
June 5th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
[…] Or you can check out a video walkthrough with Ask’s Michael Ferguson of the new features & tools. […]
June 5th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
[…] Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim recently sat down with Ask.com’s user experience guru, Michael Ferguson. Topic of discussion? Ask’s awesome new three column search interface. Ferguson goes on to explain they are working towards gaining visitor retention; keeping their visitors on the site longer and coming back more often. […]
June 5th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
[…] At GigaOm Om Malik describes the new service as “pretty nifty and pleasant”. Andy Beal, writing at Marketing Pilgrim, says he’s very impressed and believes most Ask.com users will be too. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, also providing a thorough review of the service, calls it an excellent upgrade. “If every 1% of the search market is worth $1 billion or more then this investment will certainly pay off,” he notes. […]
June 5th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
[…] Second: Michael Fergueson, Ask.com’s user experience guru, does cover some important points about how this design allows for better user retention and repeat visits in this interview with Andy Beal. However, I think you might still be closing the interaction loop prematurely. RSS can be an effective tool to continue the engagement with the user beyond the search results page. Since you know I’m interested in a Maroon 5 show in Boston, give me a feed to subscribe to so I can get a heads up about an event in Boston when it gets announced. […]
June 5th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Yes, now that Google is “the new evil” we need better competition from all angles - and Yaho + Microsoft don’t seem to be the ones who are going to steal share from Adwords.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
[…] There’s plenty being written about the new Ask 3D as you’d imagine. One you should definitely look at is the video demo at Marketing Pilgrim. Andy Beal interviewed Ask’s user experience guru, Michael Ferguson, who walks through some of the new features. The video about a half hour, but it’s worth the walk through from Michael who goes into more detail about the interface including some of the reasons behind the change. […]
June 5th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
That’s a great clip Andy! I’ll have to keep an eye on their search share with the launch of this new GUI.
Now if I could only find that loginfo for my ask accounts…it’s been a few years.
=).
-RL
June 6th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
that’s pretty slick. i like the images, video, wikipedia info etc. it’s kind of a little tiny bit like mahalo, except useful.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I thought of the connection to Mahalo too, except that I think Ask gets it right where Mahalo gets it wrong. For example Mahalo seemed to be presenting a link to Wikipedia as one of their top recommended links to just about every search I tried. Ask puts that link in the sidebar where it belongs.
Having it there in reach is good since it’s possible you would want to check what the Wikipedia says. Saying it’s one of the top seven sources of information for nearly every search isn’t.
June 8th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
[…] Exclusive - New Ask.com User Interface Video Demo […]
June 11th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
[…] The latest ad from Ask.com has aired in due time for the launch of Ask 3D (which, weird advertising aside, is actually pretty cool. The ad features a thirtysomething, run-of-the-mill business guy getting what he’s looking for, which in this case is chicks with swords. […]
June 27th, 2007 at 12:07 am
[…] Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim recently sat down with Ask.com’s user experience guru, Michael Ferguson. Topic of discussion? Ask’s awesome new three column search interface. Ferguson goes on to explain they are working towards gaining visitor retention; keeping their visitors on the site longer and coming back more often. […]
December 14th, 2007 at 11:18 am
[…] Now, where have we seen this before, I wonder? […]