Ask Says it Has a Head Start as Google Acquires Q&A Site

Update: Ask.com-U.S. President Doug Leeds offered the following additional statement:

"Google's purchase of Aardvark is simply an acknowledgement that Q&A is the future of search. As the #1 brand in Q&A, we’ve been passionate about investing in this next phase of search for a long time.  Our current technology is unmatched at answering questions using content we’ve crawled and indexed from across the web.  In Q2, we’ll also beta launch a Q+A community that will route the questions we receive to real people with relevant knowledge. This community will reach search engine scale - able to handle more than a million questions a day, faster than Google or any of our competitors. We're singularly focused on Q+A because, in the end, we believe that consumers rather Ask a question, than Google one."

Original Article: Google has reportedly acquired Aardvark, which operates at Vark.com, for around $50 million. Aardvark is a Q&A site. This is a space Ask.com says it is the number one brand for. Ask sees this move by Google as a direct challenge. "Bottom line, this move validates the space we have been #1 in for years," the company says. "It's Google coming after us and our mission."

We spoke to Ask Networks President Scott Garrell, who says, "We welcome the challenge".



A head start in Q&A that is, and Ask views this as even more important to people than web search. The reasoning for this is that web search relies on published information, while Q&A includes unpublished knowledge from people. According to Garrell, Ask gets three to four times more questions as a percentage of total queries than Google.

Ask, while not among the top three in terms of search market share, has managed to gain U.S. market share recently. In fact, from December to January, while Google dropped a percentage point and Yahoo dropped 2, Ask gained 4, according to the latest data from Experian Hitwise.

But Ask is focused more on the Q&A side of things, because it feels like that's what it is truly good at, and the company appears to feel comfortable in that role. Garrell says Ask has the best answers from technology and from people.

"We have a head start," says Garrell. Ask plans to launch a beta of a new, updated version of Ask.com in Q2.

Aardvark is a little bit different of a beast than Ask. Aardvark is more like a Q&A site/social network hybrid, and it's difficult to say just what Google intends to do with it at this time. Will it continue to operate as a standalone entity only, or will Google look to integrate this kind of answer into its own search results at some point? We'll have to wait and see on that one.

One thing Aardvark has going for it is that it can be integrated right into Gmail chat. The social aspect of Aardvark combined with the recently launched Google Buzz, could turn Gmail into a much more social presence altogether.

On a sidenote, on Aardvark, I asked if Google was coming after Ask.com with the Aardvark acquisition, and I got responses like "Ask is so yesterday..." and "Aardvark isn't really in competition with Ask.com." Ask clearly doesn't see it that way. This very example illustrates that Q&A search (at least Aardvark's brand) is prone to just delivering different opinions from people. Granted, the question wasn't one that would lend to a factual answer.

What do you think? What site do you use to get questions answered?

Twitter About to Get More Useful for Businesses

If You don't think Twitter is useful for business now, new features may change your mind. Twitter announced that it has begun limited beta testing of a new feature aimed at businesses, called "Contributors." The feature allows businesses to have more control over who is posting for their company Twitter account, and to make that information visible to users.

Would you find such a feature useful? Comment here.

"The feature appends the contributor's username to the tweet byline, making the business to consumer communication more personal; e.g. if @Twitter invites @Biz to tweet on its behalf, then a tweet from @Twitter would include @Biz in the byline so that users know more about the real people behind organizations," explains Twitter's Anamitra Banerji.



Businesses have already been finding different ways to personalize accounts. For example, the WebProNews Twitter account (feel free to follow it) utilizes "@cotags" to sign Tweets. However, this practice requires adding characters to tweets, and sometimes every character counts. If you're trying to optimize your tweets for maximum retweeting (which can in turn drive traffic to your site), you want to leave as much space as possible for followers to add their own information.

Twitter's new "contributors" feature should solve this problem. Businesses who regularly utilize Twitter will be anticipating the roll out of this feature. There's no telling how long this limited beta testing will go on though.



The important thing for businesses to keep in mind is that Twitter is finally getting serious about becoming more useful to them. There are a great many ways that businesses can use Twitter and the company knows this of course. Now, however, they seem to be set to start really catering to businesses. The new "Contributors" feature is apparently only the first of an unspecified number of business features Twitter is currently working on.

"The simple features that Twitter has offered to all users has worked for business users as well," says Banerji. "As Twitter becomes more integral to businesses, they will need more business specific features from Twitter – both on the web and API. We have been working on some of these features and are ready to start a limited beta test of one that's further along in development."

The key words there are "working on some of these features." Twitter is looking to start monetizing its own business, and catering to other businesses is bound to be a step in that direction. Ads and commercial accounts are said to be coming to Twitter soon. The commercial accounts would come with premium features, such as analytics. In fact, Twitter COO Dick Costolo recently said that multiple authors would be a part them as well, and that is exactly what they're testing right now.

We don't know what other features Twitter may have up its sleeve, but it will be very interesting to see what they come up with and how businesses respond. Either way, businesses are going to want to keep a close eye on what Twitter does, because it could have huge implications for key areas of how their businesses communicate online down the road.

What features would you like to see Twitter offer businesses? What would make Twitter more useful to you? Talk to ArisYulianta and Friends... here.

Have You Read This?

> Driving Traffic with Twitter

> Need More Examples of Twitter's Usefulness to Business?

> 10 Great Ways To Use Twitter To Your Business's Advantage

Poor Customer Service Holding Back E-Commerce Sales

Earlier this month comScore released its Q2 retail e-commerce sales estimates, which indicated that US online retail spending dropped from the same period from last year. This is only the second time that has happened.

Sure, you have to take the economy into consideration, but there are other factors that can keep people from making purchases online. A new poll from Harris Interactive found that a lack of human assistance is one of those factors, and a big one at that.

Here are some interesting findings from that poll:

- 4 in 5 online adults who have purchased items online in the last six months (77%) say they would be interested in getting help from a real person before making certain online purchases.

- However, over 4 in 5 (82%) say there have been times when they have not been able to get help from a real person.

- Over half (52%) of those who haven't been able to get the help they needed from a real person say it's affected their decision to not purchase the product.

Just look at the following graphs:

 

"No level of automation can replace the human touch. The results indicate that shoppers still want real people to help them purchase products, even in a digital setting," said Prashant Nedungadi, CEO and founder of IMshopping, who commissioned the survey. "Many retailers have started taking steps in this direction and we believe it will be the single biggest push for the retail industry over the next several years."

The following graph shows some of the types of items people really want human assistance with before making purchasing decisions.

Out of the people who have purchased items online in the past six months, the most commonly purchased items include clothing, books, music, health and beauty products, and travel-related items.

While it is a good idea to make the online purchase as easy on your customers as possible, from simply the design and usability standpoint, you may consider whether or not you are offering enough human assistance, and how easy that is for the customer to obtain.

Watch out for MLM business opportunities

Any MLM business opportunity worth considering will either have a track record that you can investigate and evaluate or it will have a clear statement of the plan, the potential, and the up-front costs.

Before investing any time or money in a specific MLM business opportunity, there are some questions you should consider first.

How long has the business opportunity been in business? Before investing time and money in marketing an MLM business opportunity, it is important to determine how long it has been operating.

If it is a new concept that has not been proven in the marketplace, you have no assurance that it will even work.

Does the company have a fixed address and phone number? This may seem obvious to you, but the fact is, thousands of companies operate with nothing more than a website and an email address.

Many of them are here today and gone tomorrow. Make sure the business you intend to deal with has a fixed address, physical location, and established phone number.

Does the MLM business opportunity have some successful members you can talk to? Most business opportunities will show you testimonials. But these are often untrustworthy.

They could even be completely fabricated. Ask the owner of the business for names of real people you can talk to. Call them on the telephone and ask them to share their experiences with the program.

This will not only provide you with valuable first-hand information about the program, but it will give you a list of advisors who might be willing to help you along the way.

How much initial investment is required? In many cases a proven MLM business opportunity with a successful track record will involve some kind of initial investment.

You should not assume that a business opportunity that is free to join is a better investment. Usually a free-to-join business will involve other costs such as marketing and advertising fees. Just keep in mind that nobody gives away “opportunities” for free.

What you have to determine is whether a specific MLM business opportunity has a successful track record, is managed by honest people and offers you a realistic chance of actually making some money.These are the things you must weigh against the entry costs.

What is the realistic income potential of the business? Have a careful look at the numbers and projections provided by the business opportunity. Then talk with actual members who are using the program to determine if they have been able to turn those numbers into reality.

Are there extra fees such as yearly or monthly subscription fees, shipping costs, or minimum purchase requirements? Make sure to get a detailed list of all the fees involved in operating the new business. These things may not seem significant now, but they can easily eat into your profits later.

How much control of your new business will you have? Be clear on who owns the business, and who controls the way it is developed and marketed. You may want to diversify your product offerings in order to avoid being at the mercy of a “head office.

The MLM business opportunity should require low initial investment and have high profit potential both in the short term and in the long term. It should allow you to build a profitable business of your own that will be a source of income far into the future.

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