Ask Jeeves' reorganized sales unit, AJ Interactive, will begin selling ads in a number of formats and attempt to grow its current advertiser base of 1,000 (relationships formed earlier by Jeeves' recent acquisition, ISH Holdings).
In reviewing the available ad exposure, the first thing I did was check out their PDF on 'premium search listings.' It appears that these will be keyword-triggered ads featured at the top of the search listings. A single "premier" listing will appear above the sponsored Google AdWords results, which in turn appear above web results.
Jeeves management expressed what we were already thinking... in the form of a denial that there is any competition with or change in the relationship with Google. According to the DMNews story, the new head of the division, Jim Diaz, had this to say:
"I'd like to see us grow as a percentage of revenue of Ask Jeeves over time. Does that mean we have to take money away from Google on the search pages? We don't have to do that at all."
Since the top listing gets clicked a high percentage of the time, and carries the highest cost per click, of course this move will "take money away from Google on the search pages."
The impact on advertisers is slightly annoying in that it adds another vendor to deal with. But larger advertisers may like it because they can lock down top spot.
It's tough to speculate what this says about the relationship between Google and Ask Jeeves. But what it does suggest is that Jeeves management is trying to make the best use of personnel they picked up in the recent acquisition. Ad salespeople had to be tasked with increasing Jeeves' revenues by working directly with more advertisers.
Posted by Andrew Goodman
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