The Butler Dies
Jeeves is out of a job.
IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) is dropping the butler who doubles as the mascot of its recently acquired Ask Jeeves online search business.
The New York-based online empire, which acquired Ask Jeeves for $1.9 billion in July, plans to rebrand the Web site as Ask.com, CEO Barry Diller said Wednesday at an investment conference.
The article also mentions China next year. If they are smart they will talk to Shak before then, assuming they know what they want to do ;)
Published: September 21, 2005 by Aaron Wall in ask jeeves
Comments
Killing off Jeeves doesn't seem good marketing. It is the only feature that differentiates the brand from any of the other faceless search engines.
Look at the publicity the 'Save Jeeves' campaign is generating. How much would it have cost IAC to buy this much publicity? Or was that the idea - threaten Jeeves and regenerate the brand?
Good move in my opinion: nobody outside of search recognized who the butler was.
Hi,
Expected move...but not a very good one. Why not start fresh? Ask Jeeves and Ask are not very good names and do NOT have a good reputation as search engines.
Maybe Diller should hire some MSN search Execs who wasted over $150 million dollars 6 months ago pourning money in the "black hole" named MSN search.
MSN Search?
Ask?
Are you kidding me???????
These are two of the worst branded "search" names on the internet.
Google
Yahoo
Two of the best branded "search" names on the internet.
Is it that hard for these guys to figure out how to "start" being competitive?
You HAVE to start with the "great name". These two are not even starting with "good names".
Good Grief.
Dan
Idiotic move. Jeeves wasn't lackluster due to an unmarketable brand - his brand is the ONLY thing that kept him afloat during the dark dotcom days.
MSN is indeed a good example of a horrid brand. Yahoo rose to prominence by being first. Google rose on technical merits and quirkyness. Jeeves still has a place in the search world, and ask.com is about as thrilling and marketable as iac.com.
SAVE JEEVES!!!
http://savejeeves.blogspot.com
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