Ask.com, the social search/Q&A engine originally founded as ‘Ask Jeeves’, has reached its 15th birthday, reported Business Insider.
Founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen, the firm has launched a special site – mylast15.com – to celebrate the milestone and review Ask events of the past 15 years.
Events include the company going public in July 1999, being bought for $1.85 billion (£1.13 billion) in March 2005, and the replacing of various CEOs up until 2009 – as Doug Leeds remains as CEO of the company.
However, the search engine has not had as much success as Google, Bing and others, clocking in at a three per cent search volume overall. This could be why content marketing professionals usually focus on larger search engines – as it helps them to hit their target demographic.
This might be something Ask works on changing; in addition to building upon its brand, which Leeds confirmed on Search Engine Land. He said: “During the next few years, Ask will increasingly be able to deliver answers and informations based on what you tell us about who you are, where you are and what you’re doing.”
“The underpinning of this, naturally, is mobile and this is an area Ask will continue to tackle aggressively over the next few years. We want to be your de-facto mobile Q&A experience. That’s what we’re aiming toward,” he added
