With monetization as the underlying motivation many businesses are re-launching with fresh verve and a new lease on life. Ask.com is the latest to dawn a fresh new look and appear with a Norton Safe Search logo and shiny new interface…
ask.com Becomes a Deal Engine Instead of a Search Engine.
First, Microsoft Live Search revamped itself as Bing.com and now Ask.com is testing out a new face with a new multivariate / theme-based layer of skins that each reveals their own unique utility when clicked.
For example 1) it’s a search engine like before, but now, with a click <drum-roll please> 2) it becomes a deal engine with dynamic, delectable deals of the day (try saying that 5 times).
Just like Jay Conrad Levinson‘s Guerilla marketing, there is only room for two major players in any competitive niche. Just like “Coke, Pepsi, and Who?”. The takeaway is – if you can’t be first in your category, then create a new category you can be first in.
With the stakes for search engine market reaching all time high; the timing could not have been better. Recent news such as Yahoo being acquired by Microsoft to combat Google in the trenches – Ask.com appears to understand that positioning is priceless.
The good news is, in the meantime, we all get to find good deals on them…
Does this mean that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with now become DEO (Deal Engine Optimization)?
Jeff you may have just inadvertently created a whole new term (Deal Engine Optimization).
Matt:
It was deliberate, let’s hope it takes off!
:D
Good for advertisers and businesses, and even more important for consumers in these tough times trying to save money. Though I wouldn’t want this “deal” thing becoming too “in your face”, I watch enough advertising as it is.