Ask has taken one big step in rebranding by ditching the "Jeeves" moniker, but now they’re taking a second step by saying sayonara to the "Teoma" brand as well.
It looks like Ask is looking to centralize their branding - what was Teoma will now be forwarded to an Ask branded site, and the team, according to Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal, will be known as the "Ask Search Technology Team". Not exactly awe-inspiring, I have to admit. The Teoma search technology is also to receive a new brand - as ExpertRank. They’re clearly taking a page from Google’s naming style, although with a significant difference in semantics.
I have mixed feelings about this rebranding process. Ask.com is a pretty good name for a search engine - it’s simple and to the point. On the other hand, I feel like the company is sacrificing a lot of character to "re-bland" their properties under this name.
Simple or interesting? Tough question, sometimes. But, as much as Ask Jeeves has been a while known name, I can’t say that the interest factor has caused it to be a particularly successful search tool. Perhaps boring will win the day, after all.
Article Announcement:
We talk a lot about SEO ethics on this site - and one question that comes up over and over is how to identify an ethical SEO company. Well, this isn’t an easy question, nor is it a simple question.
I’ve written a new article to this purpose - Are they ethical? Finding the facts about SEO spam. This article is intended to aid you in finding your way around the ethics of search engine optimization.
This Monday, search engine news will be flowing heavily from New York City. With the start of the Search Engine Strategies NY conference for 2006, there will undoubtedly be a huge influx of great information from the leaders of the industry and other technorati. Not all of us can be there, of course. And for those of us left at home, there will be fine coverage from four top industry specialists.
News from this conference will be appearing everywhere. I won’t be posting every piece of news that comes up - there’s too much, and it will be available everywhere. I will provide these links in every post for the next few days however (as suggested by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch)
- Technorati has blog reports here: sesny2006
- See shared photos on Flickr here:
sesny2006
- See bookmarked pages on del.icio.us here:
sesny2006
- See saved pages on Yahoo My Web 2.0 here:
sesny2006
- Find live coverage and discussion at the Search Engine Watch
Forums here:
SEM Events
The posts on this blog will be reactions and analyses of what’s interesting to me - but I have little doubt you’ll be able to find relevant news through one of the links above!