What is Digg?Sponsored by Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City view!
rockstargames.com - Out Now on Disc for Xbox 360. Includes The Lost and Damned plus the all-new The Ballad of Gay Tony.
86 Comments
- xerus, on 10/11/2007, -2/+68I usually think "hmm... algorithms... what does that mean? I should google it."
- ogletree, on 10/11/2007, -1/+45I noticed the same thing. I was watching the silly commercial on TV and at first I thought it was for Google. The problem is that Google is known for search. You show generic search results people will think Google. They don't mention Ask until the end of the commercial. This is stupid because very few people see the end of a commercial. When most people see a commercial they change channels. When you make a TV commercial you have to mention what you are pushing at the very beginning.
- boonecafe, on 10/11/2007, -2/+43I bet they wish Jeeves was around to clear things up
- chrozz, on 10/11/2007, -1/+35i always think of google when I am thinking, so none of this really matters.
- hmmmok, on 10/11/2007, -1/+32That was a marketing brainchild. Build a brand, and then kill it.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -4/+25Seeing as I have actually watched the commercials and they say "Ask.com" in them, I would say most people are idiots.
- 7of7, on 10/11/2007, -1/+21I searched Google for algorithm and the first result is a sponsored link to ask.com.
- emanggid, on 10/11/2007, -2/+20
i remember seeing a commercial for ask.com's superior algorithm - but i was too confused as why the hell they would put a kid standing next to his dad taking a bath in a bathtub. isn't that creepy.... and wtf does it have to do with algorithms? - 0xbaadf00d, on 10/11/2007, -2/+19The premise of the ad is stupid.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/algorithm - ncastel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17most of the billboards don't have ASK.com anywhere on them.
I thought they were Google adds when I saw them. - dolemite5005, on 10/11/2007, -0/+16All this talk about ask.com's ad campaign makes me want to go to ask.com and see what the hubub is about. Looks like their marketing worked.
- macxprt, on 10/11/2007, -1/+16Yesterday I saw a billboard stating "The Unabomber hates the Algorithm" with the ask.com logo in the corner of the billboard
Maybe it's me but I do not think it is a wise idea to associate your brand with the unabomber. - digboy99, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12@chrozz
Please pick up your assimilation badge at the front desk. Your training is complete. - THEMACGOD, on 10/11/2007, -4/+15I figured it was for ASK.com when I saw the giant ASK.com logo and heard someone says "ASK.com" at the end of the commercial.
Maybe it's just me... - seanc6610, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11The only reason I wasn't confused about the meaning of the campaign was that my first encounter with it was a billboard that said "The Algorithm Killed Jeeves." If I hadn't seen the name Jeeves mentioned right off the bat, I don't know who I would've associated the campaign with. It is insensible and pretty damn confusing.
- DeathBorn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10When I first saw the (unlabeled) billboard on the highway, I thought, "how funny, a Google campaign saying how they destroyed Ask.com!" When I found out it was actually by Ask, I thought it was ridiculous they would be blasting their own search engine.
- Gatesophile, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10Jeeves was awesome. They should never have gotten rid of him.
- TimDigg, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10I've have noticed Ask.com's agressive advertising campaign lately, the problem is...
Noone has been able to communicate what "better search" means to the average person, "better algorithm" is such a generic claim even to someone who knows an algorithm is. Furthermore what makes each search engine better than another is usually around the margins.
Remember folks, no matter which search engine you use "Nike Tennis Shoes" will generate basically the same results.
What Ask.com should be advertising is the interface and design changes not found in other popular search engines. - newJxE, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Here's were he went.
http://sp.askforkids.com/en/docs/askforkids/help/where_is_jeeves.htm - akatherder, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10They could run negative ads.
Hitler loooooooooves Google! - therippa, on 10/11/2007, -5/+13Whenever I see it I'm reminded of Stan in the S'Nuke episode of South Park...
Government Guy: I'm going to search for it on Ask Jeeves
Stan: No one uses Ask Jeeves, just Google search it - jeepnut24, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8First, I had to explain what an algorithm was to my wife. Then I realized it was an advertisement for Ask.com as they showed their logo after all. Finally I decided to stick with google as they didn't mention why their algorithm was any better than the competitions.
- blink21, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8The Algorithm Killed Jeeves. When I first saw that I thought, "Damn, that's harsh, Google! Why are you picking on little ol' Ask.com?" My assumption was that Google was doing some competitive boasting - and I thought that was odd cuz it wasn't like them... It took weeks before I saw another ad that showed it was Ask. Silly, silly campaign. I guess stupid ad campaigns stick in people's heads too though, don't they?
- Burento, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUhxU6dPLPE
- b3mus3d, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6in the future, please put a space between hyperlinks and brackets, full stops, etc. It makes the link broken, which is annoying.
- vdxc, on 09/29/2008, -4/+10In the UK I haven't seen any The Algorithm ads, but I have seen Asks "information revolution" ads (see http://information-revolution.org/). Ask took a similar approach with these ads, don't mention who funded the ads initially, then announce it a couple of weeks into the campaign.
These don't work either, people _trust_ Google to take them to reliable websites. A "pretend" underground rebellion campaign isn't going to do squat to make people trust Ask for information, and infact it makes Ask look desperate for users. - ryansac, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I didn't understand the ad campaign, but I Googled it and realized what it was.
- Metasquares, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5You say that now, but just wait until we're all enslaved by Googlezon and we need time traveling robots disguised as the governor of California to save us!
- hardcrocodile, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I hardly think that one person's brother in law mistaking an Ask.com's ad for a Google ad counts as "Being Confused". The title gives the impression that this is happening a lot, when really the article asks if anyone else has experienced it.
- roomforpanic, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6One of the brilliant things behind Google's brand-awareness is that they were able to take a relatively-obscure noun and turn it into a verb. Ask.com will never have that level of branding because the familiarity of the verb 'ask' will never be usurped by a company of the same name.
- diggerphelps, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5As a black person, I keep trying to find this site, but all I ever get is http://www.aks.com
- wattznext, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4There used to be a huge billboard that said "The Algorithm Killed Jeeves." over the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel on the NJ side. I remember thinking it was a google ad, saying google's algorithm was so good it put ask.com out of business. A few weeks ago I actually had this exact conversation with a girl at a party, and she thought the same thing. It took a front page article on digg about the algorithm itself before i finally realized it was about ask.com. It appears google cannot be defeated!
- dzorz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Maybe because I let google save my search history or just because I'm logged in, I don't get *any* sponsored links.
Neither ask.com nor google.com are in top 10 results. - ms020j, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3+1 for talking to a girl at a party.
- Spoomeister, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4What does this have to do with dancing ex-vice-presidents?
Oh.
Not Al Gore Rhythms.
Right. Move along. - gamebittk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Us Diggers -- we read the news!
- flangepiece, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4I am currently finding it highly amusing that http://www.ask.com is redirecting my browser to http://nl.ask.com/?o=312
Perhaps the last 30 years living in England have been some kind of simulation injected into my newly formed mind in the last few milliseconds by mentalist Google sciento-cultists, or Ask just lost its shot at "First impressions last".
Hey, by the way, this is my first ever Digg post. Where do I go to be debagged? - Dakk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLCrDNImDQw
- markdr123, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I never confused those ads for Google, but if some people are doing so, that's the single biggest mistake Ask or their marketing firm could have made.
- f0ad, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Ok for all you people out there that keep saying "you're dumb if you thought it was google, it says Ask.com right on it", here are some pictures I found (ironically through google)
http://valleywag.com/tech/mystery-billboards/asks-advertising-campaign-249274.php
When you're driving down the highway you see the giant lettering and not the tiny (read invisible) Ask.com.
Now you can see why people are mistaking it. - Quick2822, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Until Google starts charging people per search or something, I don't see Ask.com doing anything except wasting money on ad campaigns.
- roomforpanic, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Ask.com reminds me of something...oh yeah, Google.
- homagenz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1You are my hero, black person!
(Unless you're actually a white person, in which case shame on you). - homagenz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Well, I'm sure glad you're so cool and smart and all, but one might argue that the point of advertising is to communicate brand identity, and that if most people are conflating that identity with the competitor's then the advertising has failed, and that countering this assertion with "well then most people are idiots" just makes you look like a tool.
- Dustin00, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1When I saw it, I thought it was Google... but then was confused that Google had an advertising campaign, then the page loaded and I scrolled down and never thought of it again until now.
- Suplyndmnd, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Am I the only one that did not know they were talking about their search algorithm? I thought they were just using some complicated buzz word that the guys knew and were so happy about and the one guy didn't use ask.com so he had no clue. I should google the meaning behind ask.com's commercials before I post here.
- homagenz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I believe the point of the advert is that the Unabomber was a huge anti-technologist and disseminated his "manifesto" widely in an effort to turn people on to the evils that technological proliferation were wreaking upon our world.
I mean, seeings as he did a sideline in blowing people up, it's gratifying in a way to see that this education campaign was such a dismal failure that apparently nobody on the Internet remembers this about him; except the folks at Ask.com, whose implication (for those of you still catching up here) is that if a service is despised by a rabid murderous crazy person who believes in killing people to make some sort of Luddite point - deep breath, almost there - then it follows that good people who believe in the positive power of technology will do well to embrace this service.
Guess that cuts out most of the bitter little pills round here then, eh? Am I right, folks?! HAW HAW!!
..Ah, forget it. Unabomber hated technological progress. Ask.com, it follows, does not. Or Google. Or someone. - Metasquares, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I have a research interest in algorithms and I still don't understand what the ads are talking about most of the time.
- kwantum, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Why are you guys digging down mike? Its the truth try the search on ask.com yourself and click a few of the links, half the links go to php error pages.
Then try google... links to buy shoes, and reviews of shoes. Clearly Ask has a LONG way to go, and it isn't just their marketing campaign.
I agree that the "Algorithm" campaign is a poor choice, I think we'll see this abandoned at some point in the near future. It isn't a common enough term for people to know what it is, and even if you do know what it is having a better algorithm is in this case pretty subjective. My mom doesn't know what an algorithm is. The rule in advertising is to use simple words to construct your message. They are trying to "own" the word algorithm when in this case google already can stake their claim in it. Completely the wrong direction to go. - zbeast, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1No, I'm not confused. I know the ad's are from ask.com.
Then I go over to ask.com to see what their search is like after a few searches my mind is made up.
The Algorithm sucks. -
Show 51 - 86 of 86 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is