ASK.COM is launching a new form of search engine; it is a search engine system they have dubbed “3D” and has a unique approach to furnishing internet users with search results.
If you search on Gwen Stefani, for example, take a look at what you get: Search Results for ASK.COM
If you use Google, you are familiar with the navigation at the top of the screen that lets you pick what kind of files you are looking for:
In the Google model, you have to select the type of media you are searching for in order to see your search results broken down by file type. If you want to see images, you will not be looking at News items or Websites, for instance. It does seem relatively “old fashioned” in the face of Ask.com’s presentation. It is remarkable to me that nobody has done this before. I realize that there are those of us (I might be one of them) who very much likes to have the ability to separate their filetypes the way Google provides for. I am not sure that I do not prefer Google’s tab-style interface over Ask’s new UI. However, there is no doubt that Ask.com has done something that people will notice and I expect that Ask will experience at least an initial increase in visitors because of it.
I mean, just look at it… it is pretty slick…
…you have an Encyclopedia entry on the right, from our beloved Wikipedia. You have video tracks with thumbnails. You have audio tracks that play from within the actual search page that Ask initially returns. On the left you have popular search strings related to your initial search. It is pretty interesting, and I have not seen any all-in-one media results like this before.
That’s all well and good for something like Gwen Stefani, but what happens when we search for something a bit less “popular”?
Pretty impressive.
Who is less popular than George Lopez?
Maybe, Telly Savalas? (Gotta love bald guys).
Now, Mr. Savalas has no audio tracks, but I still think that Ask.com has done something worth noting here. All they have really done is create a unique and colorful UI that presents search results by file type and given shortcuts to multimedia.
Sometimes, it is all about the presentation.
This is a great example. It will be really interesting to me to see if Ask gets a large increase in traffic after making these adjustments.
Besides the presentation of the search results, Ask has undergone a facelift on their main page and allows you to choose skins (very popular in some demographics) and search blogs in addition to cities. They have a button for “City” so you can search a map that isnt quite Google Maps but beats Yahoo Maps Beta, in my opinion.
It is worth checking out. Your SEO efforts will remain the same. As always, name your files in a meaningful way and link, link, link.
Ask.com 3D search isn’t quite 3D, and I haven’t used it enough to comment on it’s utility, but it looks pretty cool.
There are even little icons (binoculars) that let you preview the site before going to it. That is useful to ME. I hate clicking a link and winding up at a site that is a giant wasteland of spam.
Happy Searching,
- Josh Milane