Ask.com Launches Ad-Free & Search Box-Free Mobile Search Service

Another move by a major Internet search provider to extend its services to mobile devices. Today it’s Ask.com, a subsidiary of InterActiveCorp. The company will launch a new free mobile search service today that uses navigation shortcuts to reduce the hassle of finding information such as directions, business listings, maps and weather. Unlike other msearch services, Ask.com Mobile will be ad-free, the company says. Microsoft plans to place pay-per-click ads on MSN’s Windows Live and Yahoo recently launched a beta version of sponsored search results on mobile phones in the US and UK.
Ask.com’s mobile search service goes a long way toward improving the user experience. (As I am based in Europe, I can’t try it. But it at least addresses some of the usability barrier many other mobile search services have yet to overcome.) It uses technology called Skweezer that squeezes Web pages so they are easier to view on small screens and faster to download. Additionally, searchers can now input their queries into a toolbar- not a search box. “Extensive testing showed that, by eliminating the search box from the home page and instead providing links to key search services, users were more successful in getting to what they were looking for, significantly increasing their satisfaction,” said Doug Leeds, vice president of product management for Ask.com in a press statement.
If he’s right, then there’s trouble ahead for mobile search schemes based around a search box (and being the brand behind the box.) Indeed, the number and placement of search boxes was hotly debated at a mobile search conference I recently attended. Should the box be at the top of the page, or the bottom? The jury is out on this one — but one UK operator revealed that the number of searches increased after the box was moved to the top. At the same conference search engine providers and mobile operators argued about the brand the search box (a prize piece of phone real estate) should carry. Operators wanted their brand to prevail but worried a lack of brand awareness would drive users to proactively seek out the popular search engines they know best. Ask.com suggests having no box is the best strategy of all. And the company’s focus on creating a positive user experience before overwhelming users with sponsored (often irrelevant) ads may well pay off in the end.

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