New Ask.com with 10 new skins
June 4, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 2 Comments
Via Techcrunch, I learned that Ask.com had a major relaunch tonight. While Techcrunch does a good job mentioning some of the new features, my eye was caught by the pretty new bling….the Ask homepage now comes with skins. I’ve taken screenshots of each for you to peruse. I’m partial to the polka dots skin, because the bright colors make me happy. What’s your favorite?
Sitemap autodiscovery for the Big 4 via robots.txt
April 11, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 7 Comments
As Yahoo, Ask, and MSN have all reported this morning, they (and Google) have joined together to make sitemaps autodiscoverable via the robots.txt file. As long as you tell the search engines where your sitemap lives (in the robots.txt file), they will be able to find it and use it. Simply add the following line to your robots.txt file:
Sitemap: <sitemap_location>
Default search engine quest ends
December 31, 2006 by DazzlinDonna · 7 Comments
Back on 12/11, I mentioned that I was on a quest to find a new default search engine. For one week each, I was going to try Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. This past week was Ask’s turn. All in all, it fared pretty well, with only a few disappointments. It didn’t however, do well enough to supplant Yahoo in my tests, so Yahoo is the big winner for me. From now on, I will be using Yahoo as my default search engine, and I will alternate between using Ask, MSN, and Google whenever Yahoo fails to provide what I am looking for.
Update on using a new search engine
December 18, 2006 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
A week ago, I began my quest to find a new default search engine. Last week, I used Yahoo! exclusively. How did it fare? Just fine. I was perfectly content with it all week. I found what I was looking for 99% of the time, and the rest of the time, it was equally difficult to find what I was searching for anywhere else. So far, Yahoo is in the lead, and this week is MSN Live’s turn. Next Monday, I’ll report on whether or not it topples Yahoo from the lead spot.
What do the search engines say about links?
August 10, 2006 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
Barry’s coverage of the Search Engine Q&A on Links session at SES San Jose 2006 is a must read. I’ve pulled out a few of the more interesting (to me) segments that tend to answer questions we’ve all bandied about for years. For full details, be sure to go straight to the source.
Is Google’s bloom finally fading?
May 1, 2006 by DazzlinDonna · 1 Comment
With Amazon choosing MSN Live search to power its Alexa and A9 properties, and eBay trying to partner up with Yahoo! or MSN, is this the beginning of the big web properties doing whatever it takes to loosen the stranglehold that Google has on the market? Will AOL eventually follow? Will 2007 see a more even distribution of searchers amongst the big three (or four)?
Wow, Ask head moves to MSN
April 21, 2006 by DazzlinDonna · 2 Comments
According to John Battelle, Steve Berkowitz, head of Ask, is going to run MSN, and various other Microsoft properties, beginning May 8th. Interesting stuff…
