Ask Jeeves progress in Spain

[MarZ]

News just out. Ask Jeeves has signed a number of agreements in Spain, to help position them nicely when they start their official marketing push this coming September.

Read more: Ask Jeeves, TPI, MSN, etc. Agreements, Strategy, Excitement (http://multilingual-search.blogspot.com/2005/07/ask-jeeves-tpi-msn-etc-agreements.html)

Would love to hear everyone's opinion of whom you think Ask Jeeves will be competing against in this market?

[Jorge]

They will be competing almost exclusively with google. That they will be able to fill the empty space left by terra is a mistery.

There was an OLD thread about the use of SE in Europe including Spain. If I remember correctly Google is used by 90% + .

Ask could be a good alternative if they let people know they exist in Spain. So far I haven't seen any media coverage in this country (I live in Spain) regarding the new search engine.

Unless they get the message out there there is no way they will succeed in taking a chunk out of google's market.

Using google news in Spain I only get 21 articles related to the new ask jeeves in Spain. That's pretty sad. Are they really trying to reach the Spanish market or are they simply doing a publicity stunt in the US?

[MarZ]

to clear up your doubts, Ask Jeeves has been keeping a low profile while their search engine has been in "beta" phase in spain since their launch in April. Right now they are in the next phase, wherein the engine is being tested by important/experience professionals from Spanish companies, mainly (at least that's the impression I got). Besides, they are setting up partnerships to have a strong entrance, when it officially happens. And it will officially happen starting September, when they plan to spend over a million on the marketing push in Spain.

Essentially, the idea of Ask is to be an alternative to Google and the others. Which they may very well do, however, I personally doubt that they are going to be Google's direct and powerful competition. Google has something like 91%-94%. Maybe in the long run they will be able to get a decent chunk, but I think they are very aware of what their position is. They are riding on the alternative ticket.

[Jorge]

Thanks for the info! I hope they can take a piece of the SE pie in Spain. 94% for one company alone cannot be good.