The NEW Ask.com

As a New York Times article published on October 6 points out, Google has dominated the "search engine market," so other engines are required to come up with new, innovative ideas regularly to keep up popularity.

It looks as though Ask.com has revamped in such a way that searches on their site will be looking through even more files to return more relevant answers (the example they give is that a search for 'Miley Cyrus' will also yield information on 'Hannah Montana'). Ask.com has also redone their results page into a two-panel format that is easier to read/understand, replacing a three-panel one.

Personally, I go to Google to find what I'm looking for. If that doesn't work I use another search engine, and can sometimes get what I'm looking for, but about half the time I still may not be able to find it. Google does dominate when it comes to search engines. I hear people use the word 'Google' as a verb on more occasions than I hear them refer to Google.com. One doesn't hear people talk about Ask.com that way, or any other search engine for that matter.

I think that whatever these other search engines try to do will still not be able to compete with what Google has to offer. It's already such a common tool for everyone and it could be a habit that's hard to break. I don't see a need to use another search engine, especially as a FireFox user, when Google Search is built into the bar at the top of the window. Granted, one can change the search engine that is used in the toolbar, but because it's already there and easy to use, who would go through the trouble of switching?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/askcom-revamps-search-engine/