Digital Daily » Jim Safka

Ask CEO Might Want to Look Up Definition of "Innovation" in the Dictionary.com

John Paczkowski — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:57:37 +0000

Ask.com (IACI), the little search engine that can’t, but someday hopes to, is committed to becoming a viable competitor in a market overwhelmingly dominated by Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO).

It has not, as CEO Jim Safka vehemently points out in an interview with Forbes today, ceded the search battle to anyone. “It’s horses–t,” he told Forbes.com. “It’s categorically not true. We’re more committed to our algorithm and engineers than ever. While Yahoo and Microsoft are paralyzed by trying to figure out what’s happening to their companies, we’re trying to figure out what’s next in search. You’re going to see more innovation coming out of Ask then ever before.”

The first evidence of that “innovation”? Ask’s acquisition of that paragon of innovation Lexico Publishing Group LLC, the owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. With Lexico’s properties in its pocket, Ask expects to expand its audience to more than 145 million unique monthly users–an increase that the company claims would make it the ninth-largest Web property globally. Whether the company means among all users or just married women primarily living in the South and the Midwest remains to be seen …

The Algorithm Has a Thing for Housewives

John Paczkowski — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:22:44 +0000

Looks like that big shake-up at Ask was so violent it muddled the brains of the company’s executive leadership.

This morning the company announced plans to retool itself as a search engine for housewives. Seems Ask.com believes its core demographic is married women living in the American South and Midwest looking for information about health, hobbies, family matters, children’s homework, recipes and entertainment–i.e., married women who already use Google.

“If we can do a better job of understanding who these customers are and answering their questions, we will grow,” newly installed CEO Jim Safka told Reuters. “What this means is everything we do will be put through this strategic filter.”

Post Traumatic CES Syndrome

John Paczkowski — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:00:27 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

The Algorithm With the Lead Pipe in the Lounge

John Paczkowski — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:01:28 +0000

Barry Diller may have managed to turn Fox into a legitimate fourth major broadcast network. But he hasn’t had much luck doing the same thing with Ask.com in search. Despite Diller’s best efforts, Ask’s share of the search market dropped to 4.6% in November from 5% in November 2006, according to comScore.

“We have certainly not bitten an inch out of the hide of Google,” Diller said earlier this week. “I’ve been daunted by the progress of that. … The challenge of the year … is to get people to try [Ask], experiment with it and then adopt it.”

With that in mind, Diller’s making some changes. Ask.com Chief Executive Officer Jim Lanzone–who claimed the CEO spot in April 2006 when Steve Berkowitz took a job at Microsoft–is leaving the company in a management shake-upr that will see former Match.com CEO Jim Safka take his place.

News of the leadership change comes as Ask parent InterActiveCorp prepares to spin off its HSN (Home Shopping Network), Ticketmaster, Interval International and LendingTree properties. “These changes are intended to strengthen and streamline the operating structure at IAC, both leading up to our intended spin-offs, and beyond,” said IAC CEO Diller.

Well, we’ll have to see about that. Certainly, Safka seems like a worthy candidate for the job. As CEO of Match.com from 2004 to 2006, he grew the site’s membership and revenues substantially. That said, Lanzone is also a very smart guy. If he wasn’t able to turn Ask into a legitimate player in the search market, one wonders if anyone can.