The Algorithm Apparently Killed Jeeves

April 24, 2007 |

Ask launched a strange nationwide campaign, not long ago, with cryptic billboards that raise more questions than support the brand. The first, appeared weeks ago with only what looked like a blue button and the quote “The algorithm killed Jeeves”

At first glance, I thought, “what a terrible Google ad,” throwing punches at Ask like that because of Google’s renowned search algorithm. Not only is such an attack worthless and inappropriate but most internet users have no idea what an algorithm is or does, what one has to do with search, or even to whom Jeeves refers (”are ask.com and AskJeeves the same company?” “What ever happened to AskJeeves?”).
So this algorithm killed Jeeves. “Good for Google,” I said.
Boy was I wrong. Imagine what others, others not in this business, must be thinking when they see that sign.

A couple weeks later that puzzling billboard was replaced with various messages apparently meant to provide clarification: “The algorithm is from Jersey,” and “The algorithm is banned in China”

The first confirms the campaign is from Ask; their Teoma algorithm was developed in Piscataway, NJ.

It was the point about China that left me scratching my head again. Yes… it is…. so what? This is a message I would have expected from Yahoo! years ago when Google was banned from China leaving Y! the dominant engine (other than their own). Now, of course, Google is live and well in China (though still facing challenges).
So Ask is seemingly pointing out that their own algorithm, that which killed Jeeves, is banned in China.

Well there’s a selling point I’d highlight.

Has the campaign created some buzz? Sure it has (obviously). They say all PR is good PR; in this case, I’m not so sure. What good is it to run ads that leave everyone asking so many questions without compelling us to use the product or service being promoted? As you might expect, I used Google to investigate these billboards.

Popularity: 99% [?]

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Tags: search, algorithm, ad, billboard, ask, google

Comments

24 Comments so far

Anonymous on April 24, 200710:01 am
It also seems the algorithm finds Jesus
Dave C. on April 24, 200711:16 am
I had a very similar experience a few weeks ago in New York. On the cab ride in from Newark airport, I spied a billboard stating that “the algorithm is from Jersey”. I noticed a few more of these throughout the week, deduced their origin. Now that I know who put them there, they still make no sense. Why not promote your brand by backing up all those millions spent on TV campaigns? I think that Ask has gotten a bit ahead of themselves with this one.
Rachel Klausner on April 27, 200711:28 pm
Thank you for the clarification - I drove by “The Algorithm Killed jeeves” board in SF this week and it’s definitely left an impression, though you’re right, I wasnt sure at all what engine was being advertised - and could only imagine what people out of our industry must be thinking.

I think ask was trying to be viral here but not too well… trying to reach online users and marketers with outdoor advertising and no mention of a URL? hm.
aj on April 30, 20078:39 am
I’m not advertising Ask.com here. But if you actually go to the site you can then join the ‘information revolution’ or whatever. Seems slightly novel, but more showy than anything; I might try it out later.

Anyway, kinda ironic that you used google to research this instead of going to ask.com to see what it was all about.
Sean at Prompt on April 30, 20078:52 am
Jeeves had a reputation of being for newbies not just because of the way it accepted requests, but also because its hand-edited index was shallow. I think this campaign is making people aware that Ask claims to have a decent crawler now. Only those who care about that kind of thing will understand the ads, but that doesn’t matter.
Michael Reeve on April 30, 20079:29 am
Ask have recently had an equally nonsensical ad campaign in the UK, supposedly encouraging “grass roots” rejection of the most popular search engine (i.e. Google).

Posters and adverts all pointed to http://www.information-revolution.org/

It didn’t take long to WHOIS the site, and read that it belonged to a PR company with Ask among their clients.
watch tv online on April 30, 20079:33 am
Oh, so thats what all that strange boards were all about.
Jeremy Osterhouse on April 30, 200712:57 pm
The same thing happened to me when I saw those signs. I’d say there’s a problem with your marketing campaign when “Google” is the first thing people think of when seeing your ads.
Paul on April 30, 20071:44 pm
Now that looks like a viable marketing campaign. Thanks for the posts about the Information Revolution.

Their 10 reasons search has evolved is insightful, valuable, and a clean experience. Nice job Ask!
JS on April 30, 20072:42 pm
Don’t you assume that they’re advertising the fact that their algorithm wasn’t altered to appease the chinese government… I think the fact that the algorithm is banned in China IS something to brag about…
Paul on April 30, 20073:35 pm
Good point JS but coming late to the game in a country with a billion customers certainly won’t help.
live tv on April 30, 20074:25 pm
Looks like good advertising to me, it perked your interest to write about it, got on digg and now has all these people talking about it and visiting ask.com, to me mission successfull.
Michael Brito on April 30, 20074:31 pm
Paul - great article. Ask totally wasted their money with this campaign. Sure, they are creating buzz amongst people like you and I who are in the industry; but what about the general consumer? If they are trying to increase their market share, this campaign is not helping at all. They must have forgot who their target audience really is.

- Michael
Paul on April 30, 20074:40 pm
live tv, now that I’ve hit digg, I’m moving to agree with you. Admittedly, I am on the fence and my last comment about good/bad PR is speculative more than a concrete position one way or the other. Certainly, they’ve created buzz, links, and interest.
Alistair Davidson on April 30, 20078:23 pm
My sense is that the ad is very obscure. Garfield was, I believe, the pioneer of citation reference modeling and his first client was Bell Labs in New Jersey. Google’s algorithm is based upon citation reference modeling. So my interpretation of the ads is that the algorithm killed off Jeeves and the algorithm started in NJ. I suspect that Google which has used math tests to identify bright people may be attempting to reinforce its brand, but it does not seem terribly successful as a hiring device.
Takumi on April 30, 20079:21 pm
I’d say in this case all PR is good PR. People are asking questions, and although they aren’t all positive, it still leaves people with Ask in their minds. Maybe it’s something subconscious they are aiming for?
Ken Frazza on May 3, 20071:21 pm
We were on our way to the SEO show in NYC a couple of weeks ago and saw the billboard going into the Linclon tunnel. So we ended up going to Ask.com’s booth to ask them about it.

Here is what I posted about it on my site.

“Strange moment of the day:

On the way into the Lincoln Tunnel, we saw a billboard that simply said
“The Algorithm killed Jeeves”

So after a discussion and ruling out that they were talking about Al, we decided to go to the Ask.com booth to ask them what it was about. Ask.com used to be AskJeeves.com. After a discussion with some of the girls at the booth who didn’t have a clue, they produced a guy who proceeded to ramble on about a bunch of nonsense about marketing in the UK. Bottom line: He didn’t have a clue and I don’t think that Ask.com’s marketing people do either.

So we spend over 5 minutes at the Ask.com booth and not one of them told us anything about Ask.com or what they are up to. I guess we confused them.”
If you would like to read the whole post go to
http://www.merlist.com/?p=264

Thanks for more info on this subject. Sometimes marketers go to far off the path.

KF
Hostgator » Blog Archive » The Algorithm Apparently Killed Jeeves on May 28, 20079:54 am
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Olly S on May 29, 20077:37 pm
I’ve just figured it all out. After ten minutes of Googling (sorry Ask… hehe) ‘the algorythm’ trying to find someone who can explain this campaign to me, I finally see the point. This campaign is deliberately non-sensical and cryptic so that the blogging community write articles like yours, generating brand buzz (negative or positive is irrelevant), thus getting ask.com in to our heads, and hopefully a few curious users going to try it…. Sneaky fuckers. Clever though…
Olly S on May 29, 20077:45 pm
just realised I can’t spell algorithm… not so insightful now are we, smart arse? hehe….
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