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Ask.com
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earnings
acquisitions
Ask.com buys reference site Lexico
Lexico, the company behind reference sites like Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, has been acquired by also-ran search engine Ask.com, a unit of Barry Diller's IAC, for an undisclosed sum. It will mean an 11 percent boost in traffic for Ask and more revenue for Lexico's sites, as Google had cut a special deal with IAC for a higher revenue share than it would give to the likes of Dictionary.com. Possibly tipping their hand about future moves, Ask CEO Jim Safka told the AP the site was also looking to improve results related to health and entertainment, presumably through more acquisitions. The move comes after IAC's Barry Diller settled a fight with Liberty's John Malone, a major IAC shareholder, over plans to split the company into five different parts.
caption contest
Chadrick loves Diana, and the feeling is mutual
The act that first brought Chadrick Baker, virtual-worlds advocate and lover of love, to our attention was his declaration of romantic fealty to four Valley foxes. Bad news for Sarah Meyers, Amanda Lorenzani, and Sarah Lacy: Baker has found his feelings for Ask.com art director Diana Furka requited. Before declaring their feelings, the two pursued a platonic paternship on a website, Oddistry.com. Good luck, you crazy kids! As for the rest of you, can you think of a better caption for mascot and mate? Suggest one in the comments, and it will become the new headline. Yesterday's winner: "You mean this isn't the Facebook prom?" by dannyisme.
chadrick baker
Chadrick Baker, Valleywag's mascot, has been suspiciously silent lately. I'd just started to worry that he'd disappeared into a virtual world once and for all when he popped up to let me know he and Ask.com's Diana Furka had posted a new video on Oddistry.com. Thank goodness! Learn about the compubeaver and the emerging popularity of "steampunk" in this episode. Check out the end, where Furka touts her employer's search engine. As a marketing strategy, it makes slightly more sense than trying to find Jesus.
Valleywag mascot touts computerized beaver at Maker Faire
Chadrick Baker, Valleywag's mascot, has been suspiciously silent lately. I'd just started to worry that he'd disappeared into a virtual world once and for all when he popped up to let me know he and Ask.com's Diana Furka had posted a new video on Oddistry.com. Thank goodness! Learn about the compubeaver and the emerging popularity of "steampunk" in this episode. Check out the end, where Furka touts her employer's search engine. As a marketing strategy, it makes slightly more sense than trying to find Jesus.
don't be latino
Google doesn't care about Mexican people
Ask.com bungled the spelling of Cinco de Mayo, but at least they made an effort. Pictured here are Yahoo's animated mariachis and dancers. But Google, the company well known for its holiday flights of logo fancy? Nada. Yes, it's actually a minor holiday south of the border. But the victory in Puebla over the French has gone unnoticed in the Googleplex for the ninth year running. More »
search
IAC wants black people to love Rushmore Drive
Barry Diller's IAC is throwing a launch party in New York tonight for new portal Rushmore Drive, which includes an Ask-based search engine manicured to appeal to African-Americans. Fast Company senior editor and blogger Lynne D. Johnson managed to sneak an early screenshot and some marketing messaging online. The project, launched at IAC's typically glacial pace, has been in the works for a year, and IAC plans to target other niche demos in the future, Johnson reports. According to the latest data from Pew Internet, 56 percent of African-Americans use the Internet. Might be a good place for Google to post some job listings.
valleywag mascot
Our new Valleywag mascot, Chadrick Baker, first came to our attention by announcing his love for the tech girls of Silicon Valley. Now he's ventured beyond love into selfless devotion. Ask.com art director Diana Furka has launched a new tech-culture videoblog, Oddistry. Baker is helping produce. I asked Baker whether Oddistry.com was anything like JakobandJulia.com, the ill-fated relationship blog of Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick and reality-TV hopeful Julia Allison. More »
Chadrick loves helping Diana Furka launch tech blog Oddistry.com
Our new Valleywag mascot, Chadrick Baker, first came to our attention by announcing his love for the tech girls of Silicon Valley. Now he's ventured beyond love into selfless devotion. Ask.com art director Diana Furka has launched a new tech-culture videoblog, Oddistry. Baker is helping produce. I asked Baker whether Oddistry.com was anything like JakobandJulia.com, the ill-fated relationship blog of Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick and reality-TV hopeful Julia Allison. More »
strategery
You're not the only one confused about Ask; so are employees
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported Ask.com would become a search engine for midwestern women. But now the "Marge Simpson Plan" — as our Ask tipster calls it — is off. Apparently, Ask CEO Jim Safka changed his mind over the weekend and executives spent all day Sunday scrambling to put together a new plan. Our tipster blames the confusion on Safka's secretive nature, telling us that when he comes into work his office door is always closed. The silence has once loyal employee feeling apathetic and looking for jobs elsewhere.
exits
Barry Diller: I could be gone in a week
Barry Diller's battle with Liberty Media head John Malone for control over IAC could be over in a week, Diller told a crowd at a Variety event yesterday. "It's very odd that two people who don't want to give up control of anything are giving control to a judge in Delaware," he said. "The wonderful thing about Delaware is they do it quickly. They make a decision quickly." Some shareholders might wish for the same alacrity from Diller.
the chart
While bloggers fret, Google's market share grows larger
Depending on which search-engine marketing firm you believe, Google either had a really good month monetizing is search traffic, or a really poor one. It's so confusing! Seeing HitWise's search market share numbers from the month, I bet competitors Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com are glad they didn't have to worry about having all that traffic.
layoffs
Ask.com cuts jobs, targets housewife demographic
As Barry Diller curtails both Ask.com's ambitions and its workforce, his hired hand is turning it into the Home Shopping Network of search engines. CEO Jim Safka says 65 percent of its users are female with a high concentration in their late 30s in the Midwest and Southeast. In an attempt to try to get also-ran search site back on track, Safka is laying off eight percent of Ask's employees and "reevaluating" its strategy. "Everything we do will be put through this strategic filter," he says. At last, a search engine that plays in Peoria. The only problem is that even Midwestern housewives know how to Google.
videogames
Search isn't working, so Diller tries another flooded market
As his search engine Ask.com inches toward irrelevance, besieged IAC CEO Barry Diller has found another crowded market to pour cash into: videogames. According to Variety, Diller plans to invest $50 million to $100 million of IAC's money on InstantAction, a new site from recently acquired IAC subsidiary GarageGames. GarageGames doesn't develop games quite so "casual" as the type Mark Pincus's Zynga produces, but the venture's product will still be Internet-based games made for those who don't want to waste time in front of a TV. Just like everyone else in the market, only a year or two later.
iac
Ask.com layoff whispers grow yet louder
Is the ax falling at Ask.com? "There is indeed a big shakeup coming," a tipster tells Silicon Alley Insider, seeming to corroborate layoff rumors we reported earlier.Some think a reduction in workforce is likely. There are no sacred cows, [Ask's proprietary search technology] may be sold or simply abandoned which is hundreds of engineers who work on the core search engine, in place of just using Google's search with our special brand of user interface.
rumormonger
Layoff rumors stir the herd at Ask.com
"This place was buzzing today that there will be layoffs here soon," an Ask.com employee tips us off. The tipster complains that since completing "a bunch of tests for new ways to make money, no one in my group has seen or heard from management [since] they had a pizza lunch the first week of January." It's the second Ask layoff rumor we've heard this month. More »
stats
Google up, Yahoo down in U.S. search share
ComScore's January 2008 search rankings are out. Google, AOL and Ask.com had slight share gains at the expense of Yahoo. Search queries were up significantly across the board with Ask and AOL as the big gainers. Here's the chart: More »
valley sex legends
So I married a Stanford-brained escort
Stanford's new financial aid policy, had it gone into effect a bit sooner, might have killed the Valley's own Pretty Woman story: David Warthen, cofounder of Ask.com, married alleged Stanford Law escort Cristina "Brazil" Shultz just four months after Schultz's assets — $61,000 in cash — were seized by the government. From her postings on escort's clients' review boards, bragging of paying off student loans with her new night job, the IRS deduced she must have a lot of unpaid taxes: At $1,300 per two-hour "modeling" appointment, $5,000 for "overnight," and over 80 men claiming they'd been her clients — hey, do the math. After becoming her husband, Warthen was able to convince the Feds that the money was a gift from him, meant as "a benefit for the both of them". Talk trash if you must, but since they likely met on the job, Warthen is telling the truth. Carry on, Jeeves! (Photo by RM Studios)
rumormonger
More heads to roll at IAC?
A tipster tells us to expect a "big shakeup at Ask.com," including "change in product lineup and company direction." The shakeup "could effect CA and NJ office, Lots of SVP, EVP, VP, CTO types that probably are redundant." It's a vague and poorly sourced rumor, but with IAC and its chairman Barry Diller already under siege, such a shakeup certainly is plausible. Especially since — judging by M&A exec Jason Rapp, who was recently transferred to unspecified new duties — it may have already begun.
steve berkowitz
