Ask.com Heralds a New Focus

By TANZINA VEGA

In the world of search engines, Google's dominance has propelled it to a permanent place as a verb in dictionaries. But another Web site named after a verb wants to own the business of answering questions. On Friday, Ask.com began an advertising campaign with the hope of getting more people to visit the site when they have questions like “What's the best way to make a potato salad?” or “Who killed J.F.K.?”

“People aren't looking for a new search engine,” said Doug Leeds, the chief executive of Ask.com. “They are satisfied with Google.” Mr. Leeds said Google is a place to do research “where you just want a whole bunch of sites that point you in the right direction.”

Ask.com, by contrast, is where users come to get answers to specific questions. “People weren't using us for search,” he said. “They were using us for Q. and A., and we weren't giving it to them.” According to Mr. Leeds, users were typing long-form questions into the Web site 50 percent of the time. The site draws 70 million unique users in the United States a month, he said.

The site, originally called Ask Jeeves, was bought in 2005 by InterActiveCorp for $1.85 billion. But with so many people Googling for information, the company had little choice but to refocus its strategy. “We're kind of like the Rodney Dangerfield of the Internet,” Mr. Leeds said.

In 2010, Ask.com shifted its focus from a search technology business to a question-and-answer business. The new ads, created by the company rather than an agency, began running in movie theaters across the country last Friday. One ad, called “Sense and Sensibility,” features a Victorian lord and lady. When summoned, the man tells the woman, “You may ask me anything,” to which she replies, “How do I jailbreak this smartphone?”

A second ad is a spoof of “Snow White.” The wicked queen begins her question with “Mirro r, mirror on the wall,” but when told that she is the fairest of them all, she stops and asks, “Why doesn't it tickle when you tickle yourself?”