• Search Engine Roundtable, Thursday, March 6, 2008 1:30 PM

Ask's top brass may have tried to make it seem as if the company is still committed to core search, but many in the search community are brushing those statements off as nothing but corporate doubletalk.

"If you are going to cut 8% of a tiny workforce, how do you expect to compete against Google or Yahoo or Microsoft--you can't. If you are going to focus your engine in a niche of searchers who are women over 30 who search on health and entertainment, how are you going to compete in the search space as an innovator--you won't," says Barry Schwartz. "If you are going to alienate 'digerati' or 'West Coast elite' how are you going to compete against Google--you can't and won't."

Schwartz compiles reactions from across multiple search forums, including Sphinn, Cre8asite Forums and WebmasterWorld, with quotes like "The little search engine that could --no more" conveying the fondness that many in the search community had for Ask as the underdog.

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