Ask has just impressed me with their new UI and customization features. The search is getting better too, though Google has me on the second page for Web 2.0 blog whereas I’m not in Ask :-p
Since talking about their previous redo, which we covered as well, Ask 3D has done a leap frog over it’s competitors in terms of personalization. People like to play around with stuff on the web, social sites have proven that, so they decided to really give this a spin and added various backgrounds along with some newly designed icons and a crisper looking search result pages UI.
With more web users growing aware of personalization Ask has done it better than Google, for now. Plus the search results were slightly better on Ask for a test I did of keyboards - keyboards on Ask, keyboards on Google {yes, I’m presently shopping around for them}. Hovering over the binoculars brings up a preview of the site.
Ask marries the images along with products onto one page, whereas Google gives you the option to look at either or. No question about it, the sponsored results were prevalent on both search engines.
So which is better?
It’s hard to say, as mostly everyone who has reviewed queries says that results are better for some cases and not for others. In the end really it boils down to a persons choice. If you like a sleeker looking unclutterd UI, Ask maybe for you. But if you want bang on results, mostly, then Google might be for you.
Of course I like to use a variety of search engines and am not a loyalist to anyone of them.
Which one do you prefer?
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About the author
Hyder has been blogging for the past two years on this blog. He started Weborithm, his web company, in 2007 and along with designing blogs and websites also releases various web related products.
Owen on June 5th, 2007
1
Google’s still number 1 for me. Here’s how I ended my post on the matter:
Ali on June 5th, 2007
2
Haha lame duck! Good one. They still look a bit better than Google presently.
Jonathan Franzone on June 5th, 2007
3
I’m still a Google man, but the new front page looks pretty cool. It’d be nice if they let you select your own wallpaper though! If they did that I might be enticed to use it. Couple that with having Gadgets like google does for weather and whatnot on your personalized homepage and I’m there.
Webmaster Money on June 7th, 2007
4
Sometimes I get on first position in Ask and there is comming some good traffic so from this view is not Ask bad. But still Google is the number 1.
Michael on June 8th, 2007
5
I still use google and probably will until something blows it away. I have played with the new Ask.com and its good looking but it just doesn’t seem to give me the best search results and when it comes right down to it, thats what it is all about.
Austin Hallock on June 9th, 2007
6
And with all the advertising and updates, they will never even get close to google. The thing is that google is integrated into nearly everything and ask isn’t.
I just checked the search box in firefox and there are options to search google, yahoo, amazon, answers, creative commons and ebay….No ask