Saturday, January 22, 2005

The Ask Jeeves Butler Leaves The Mansion

From The Standard Ask Jeeves developing wireless search service.

Looking to provide yet another way for users to tap its search capabilities, Ask Jeeves Inc. is developing new wireless search services to be launched this year, according to a company executive. Unlike competitors such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., Ask Jeeves currently doesn't offer a way for users to access its search engine via mobile devices, but that will change at some point before the end of 2005, said Daniel Read, Ask Jeeves' vice president of product management.

Although Google, Yahoo and others have rolled out wireless search services, Ask Jeeves believes this segment of the search market is still in its early days, Read said. In developing its wireless search services, Ask Jeeves will focus on providing very specific information to queries and not try to replicate the conventional Web searching experience, given the nature of wireless communications and devices, he said.

"A lot of search players have put traditional Web search on to wireless devices, but most of the Web pages you want to go to aren't rendered properly on a wireless device screen. So we're looking at rolling out specific search services for the wireless device," he said. For example, likely information Ask Jeeves could make available from its search arsenal to wireless devices includes local business listings and maps, Read said.

Wireless search wont really be search at all. It will involve interaction with the physical world. Nobody will want 10,000 listings for italian restaurants in Manhattan.

Try to think that search on the phone more like navigation. A navigation engine
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