Search engine optimization - SEO, website traffic

While the spotlight may be on Google, Yahoo and MSN, Ask Jeeves has quietly improved their search engine to ensure a user experience that is second-to-none. While, Ask could comfortably rest on their laurels, they know that the competitive world of search is constantly changing and in order to continue their success they need to ensure that they remain at the cutting edge of search engine technology.

[Andy Beal] Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Let’s start with what you see happening in the future?

[Jim Lanzone] Unfortunately, we can’t talk publicly about the most exciting search technologies we’re building, because they are proprietary to us and we wouldn’t want Google copying us now would we? We have some very tasty special sauce we’ll be launching over the course of the next few quarters that will make our search results perceivably better than the competition’s.

Without giving too much away to your competitors, can you give any hints as to what might be upcoming from Ask Jeeves?

In the area of things we can talk about, we are very excited about our work on both the search technology side and the search experience side. They are equally important to helping people find what they need.

What new developments in search do you see happening in the next 3-5 years?

Because accessing information is such an integral part of our lives, I believe your interaction with search will change dramatically in the next 3-5 years. You will be able to access search databases from other sources than the keyboard (with voice recognition technology, maybe), and on different platforms (such as the GPS in your car).

GPS (global positioning system)? How do you see GPS and search interacting?

For example, a GPS with search capabilities could tell you where to find the best local pizza restaurant or nearest medical clinic in a neighborhood you visit. Of course, in order for that to happen, local search capabilities will have to vastly improve, as will voice recognition technology.

Apart from GPS, do you see search having an impact on any other consumer products?

Search is the #1 activity on the Web, and there’s no reason why the utility of search or the Internet should be restricted to your PC or Mac. I believe a device will come along and have the same impact on search as the iPod did for music. Cell phones will probably adapt more to this device, ultimately, than the other way around, due to usability issues, and the user’s desire to carry only one device. Standing on a street corner and using this device, you will search for a local restaurant, or a cab company, through the Internet. Instead of going to the cab company’s website, you will click a link and initiate a phone call. The search engine will be compensated for the call (this is the traditional Yellow Pages model of “metered calling”) rather than the click.

Let’s take it one stage further. Assuming there were no restrictions on technology, what new feature would you like to see introduced by the search engines?

We’d like to one day be able to understand a user’s query perfectly, regardless of how they phrase it. Understanding the query perfectly would do much more to impact the quality of results for the everyday user (whether novice or expert) than perfecting the results themselves (though obviously we’re trying to do both!). Much of our work is geared towards overcoming the hurdles of technology to make this dream a reality. After that, things like voice-enabled search will flow more easily.

What if cost wasn’t an issue? Any dream product?

If cost were no issue, we’d also like to see an Ask Jeeves-enabled PDA in every user’s hand!

Companies such as Eurekster are betting that social networking is the future of quality search engine results, what are your thoughts?

What makes Teoma the “best of breed”?

What is Teoma doing that the IBM team couldn’t do?

The Clever team identified that it was a better mousetrap for producing relevant search results, but thought it would take a server farm the size of the state of Texas to produce in real time. Teoma does it in a split second. Others questioned whether the technology would scale past 50 million document index. We’re now at 2 billion. Remember that Teoma is a much younger technology than our competitors, so in some ways we’re only now starting to see the power of it. And as it grows, social networking will continue to be at the heart of what makes Teoma different and special.

Do you foresee a time when commercial search results (product/services) will be separated from informational search results (white papers/educational sites)?

Yes, similar to Yellow vs. White Pages. But since index search is already separate from P4P links, this is a much more important prediction for the future of paid inclusion. The future of paid inclusion is more likely to be in separate, possibly 100% paid indexes, than it is the current mix of paid and unpaid links, and structured and unstructured data. It’s better for monetization, better for relevance, and probably better for the FTC. When you think about it, this is already happening with a site like Shopping.com, which is basically product search with a 100% paid index. Same thing with the Yellow Pages. I could see this model extended to jobs, airfares, and even adult sites.

We’ve talked a little about providing more relevant search results. If search engine users gave up a little of their privacy and allowed their search habits to be monitored, would this allow the search engines to provide better, customized results?

Some search engine users are already giving up their privacy willingly, for example with the latest Google 2.0 toolbar. The reason why Google wants this information is because the answer to your question is a resounding “yes”! Even more important than results customized for individuals, however, which will have some utility but not as much as some may think, are results customized for groups of individuals who exhibit similar characteristics. For example, those who frequently visit certain sites. Moreover, search engines can use this information to track the quality of their competitors’ results, because these toolbars can - if users allow them to - track their usage on other sites.

Jim, I appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions. What last thing would you like readers to know about Ask Jeeves?