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However, what they don't have is traffic coming through it, which leaves teoma, at the back of every SEO-ers mind, when talking about which SE's to optimize and high-rank for.
So if you could think off anything that could point Ask Jeeves in a productive position, in backing TEOMA, what would it be?
Teoma - to appeal to the Google using more tech savvy crowd.
AJ - to appeal to those who want a more user friendly, warm fuzzy interface.
The AJ part seems to be taking off if my logs are any indication. It seems to be carving out a nice market segment.
To my surprise Teoma has not caught fire in the same way. I thought the techy folks might really like it. Maybe the DB is still too small? I am getting some traffic from Teoma but it is growing very slowly. As long as Teoma is feeding it's excellent results to AJ it will be of growing importance even though one step removed.
Maybe now that Google has stumbled Teoma has a chance to get established with everyone. Although first people have to hear about it and try it.
One thing that I would do is start a regular update cycle with Teoma. Start out every two month if they have to and then go to monthly. Make it so you can pretty much set your watch by it. People like orderly, predictable behaviours and webmasters like that too. (Case in point was the old Excite only updating once every year, AV's flakey updates in the past, and Wisenut's not doing anything. People hate that.) Google gets more WOM buzz with that "dance" than all the others combined.
It would be nice if they could land a major outlet over and above AJ. However there really is only MSN left and either Ink or Wisenut will probably get that.
Maybe now that Google has stumbled
I missed something.... how/when did google stumble?
Thanks!
dave
They haven't. Some webmasters whose SERPs fell last update were whining. However, those webmasters now on top thought Google got it right finally. ;)
which leaves teoma, at the back of every SEO-ers mind, when talking about which SE's to optimize and high-rank for
Maybe that's exactly *why* they have been able to keep their rankings relevant and relatively spam free!
To get search market share, you need to appeal to regular searchers, not SEO's. In fact if they can do the first without the other, they may well get a competitive advantage! Of course SEO's will then spring for it, and give Google some breathing space..
Good point. Growing a SE under the radar can have some advantages. In the meantime AJ is gaining searchers in the more mainstream market while Teoma stays "behind the curtain".
The worrisome part is that Ask still seems to be bleeding red ink. It might be at a slower rate but they cannot do that forever.
carfac,
It is an admittedly subjective judgment. But it is probably best if we do not divert a Teoma thread into a G* debate. caine will scold us if we do. :)
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Sorry- was not trying to cause a problem. Just figured since the point was raised here- and I was unaware of Google doing anything that might make it follow AV to SE-Oblivion, I might ask. I was not trolling or anything, or trying to start a flame war...
In any case, the question was answered. But thanks for the heads up!
dave
1. How long can AJ stay in the Red?
2. How long is Teoma going to stay under the radar? (its been around a while now.)
Hi carfac,
No problems. :) If you are interested look back in the Google forum there are several long post-Sept update threads. They pretty well cover it. :)
