ccDan - 5:27 am on Jun 12, 2007 (gmt 0)

Watch this space. Ask.com is on the way up.

I think, too, that Ask.com is on the way up, and Google may be on the way down. Whether Ask.com ultimately overtakes Google, or Google is upset by some other up-and-comer, is still too early to say.

Anyone remember why they switched to Google several years ago, away from places like Yahoo and others?

Because you were able to find what you were looking for. Oh, it wasn't perfect at first. You'd use Yahoo, then try Google when you didn't get enough good results. Over time, you used Google more and more, until you went to Google first.

I search for things in my niche. On a search tonight, for example, the first result in Google sounded promising, but it wound up being an MFA site with 9 different AdSense ads, one of the top ones being that omnipresent Ebay ad that shows up for everything, regardless of whether it's something you could actually find on Ebay.

On Ask.com, the first result was something actually relevant to what I was searching for. (Maybe their ads are right-Google's algorithm is lame.)

How long before I, and others, start searching on Ask.com first, Google second?

If you think about it, content is king. Content is what people are searching for. But, Google no longer rewards the best content with a top ranking. No, you have to have your site designed a certain way, obtain your links a certain way, be careful how you link among your own sites, avoid "bad neighborhoods", etc.

Some people may not have a problem finding stuff with Google. Others are switching to Ask.com. What's going to be important is what users are moving where. If Ask.com is gaining the right users, then it can get a foothold and start expanding into other search areas where it may be currently lacking.