In a dramatic about-face, Ask.com is abandoning its effort to outshine Internet search leader Google Inc. and will instead focus on a narrower market consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives. As part of the new direction outlined Tuesday, Ask will lay off about 40 employees, or eight per cent of its workforce.
With the shift, the Oakland, Calif.-based company will return to its roots by concentrating on finding answers to basic questions about recipes, hobbies and children’s homework.
The decision to cater to married women primarily living in the southern and midwestern United States comes after Ask spent years trying to build a better all-purpose search engine than Google. (link)
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