This morning TechCrunch published an article regarding Ask.com’s use (or abuse) of advertisements.
I decided to take a look for myself, and searched Ask using the keyword “stocks“. I have highlighted the adverts with a yellow background and the actual search results in blue. Also highlighted is the “Find a Stock Quote” section in red and the news results in green.
The first thing you may – or may not – notice is the large number of “Sponsored Results” at the top of the page, all 10 of them. Unlike Google, Yahoo and MSN, Ask doesn’t differentiate between their inline adverts and the search results by using a different background colour; they are labelled in very small text as “Sponsored Results”. This means many users won’t realise the item is a paid for placement – and not the most relevant site – and will often click the link. This doesn’t help to make their site user friendly, but probably increases their search revenues dramatically.
On the page there are a 10 adverts above the search results and a further three adverts below search results – 13 ads on a single page, compared to just eight search results – a very high figure. Perhaps this is just a one off, a search term with many adverts on it? Afraid not. Searching for “dogs“, “cats” and “hats” also all display 13 adverts, 10 above the search results and three below.
Note that there are so many adverts at the top of the page that actual results (what the user is looking for) are below the fold of what is visible on the screen without having to scroll. This means users can’t go straight to what they are looking for without having to scroll down.
Compare this to Google:
Google – like MSN and Yahoo – has one paid inline advert above the search result. This “Sponsored Link” is labelled and highlighted using a background colour to draw attention to this fact. The remaining adverts are removed from the flow of the page so that they are unobtrusive, but still present by being located in the sidebar.
No wonder Ask is losing market share – it’s making it difficult for its users to find what they want to find as easily and quickly as possible; their search engine has become an advertising platform. Perhaps this is what Ask feel they have to do to be able to compete with the Googles and Yahoos of the world?
What should they do?
Limit the number of adverts on one page. Differentiate the adverts from the search results more – highlight them using a background colour (this has become and industry standard) and move them to the sidebar. By having less adverts above the content you can charge more for placement there, too. Finally, make your search engine as useful as possible so that people can use it.
Jeeves never would have stood for it.
