Ask Finally Mobilizes

Ask finally launched its mobile offering today, Ask.com Mobile. It uses Greenlight Wireless’s “Skweezer” technology to optimize results for mobile devices. Having just done some very quick testing and searches I can say that it stacks up very well against its primary competitors: Windows Live Mobile, AOL Mobile, Google Mobile and Yahoo! Mobile. I didn’t test MapQuest because I didn’t have the application on my phone.

Ask offers a browse, rather than a search, interface as the front door, getting users to narrow their category interest before conducting a search. Here’s the menu:

1. Web Search
2. Directions
3. Images
4. Business Listings
5. Maps
6. Weather
7. Bloglines
9. Next »

If you think disambiguating queries in a web search environment is tough, try mobile where there are fewer keystrokes and less patience (at least from me).

The WSJ (sub req’d) piece on the new service talks about features intended to minimize keystrokes. But other than recent locations and recent searches those features were in short supply in my test, which was on a Samsung MMA900 (not a smartphone).

However I focused my brief test on local information so I didn’t equally explore other categories and their features. On Ask Mobile local consists of Weather, Directions & Maps (which should be brought together as on Ask.com proper) and Business Listings. The latter is a not very intuitive naming alternative to “Local,” which is the category on Ask.com. I would recommend a name change unless user/focus group testing came out in favor of “Business Listings.” (Doubt it.)

Here is a comparison of results from the mobile apps of the major engines vs. Ask Mobile (“Sushi, San Francisco”):

• Yahoo! Local (I can’t link to the results but you can duplicate the search)
• Google Maps/Local
• Windows Live Mobile
• AOL Mobile
• Ask Mobile

Of the five, Yahoo!, AOL and Ask offer user ratings. Ask ratings come from sister company Citysearch, which just launched an SMS-based mobile search service, with other mobile applications to follow later.

Only on Ask, however, can you sort by distance or rating. This feature is extremely helpful in making a decision unless you’re only looking for contact details and not truly doing a category search. Ask also remembers recent locations, a feature which all the others but Google also share.

Unlike Windows Live Mobile, Google and Yahoo, Ask is not putting ads in results or otherwise on the app for the immediate future.

Generally speaking all these mobile search offerings need GPS and shortcuts, personalization and a long memory of locations and/or recent searches to help minimize keystrokes. (That’s where voice comes in.) Indeed, using a phone with a small screen makes for a generally awkward mobile search experience. But having said that, Ask was as good or better than the other applications from a usability standpoint.

Ask is perpetually in fifth place in the online search derby. Mobile is a bit of a “greenfield opportunity” for the company. Yet the absence of Ask.com email will put it at a bit of a disadvantage vs. its competitors in mobile since that is and will be one of the dominant functions on wireless devices: checking email.

Still it’s not clear that Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft will dominate in mobile the way they have in search and otherwise online. If Ask can build on this good start and keep a laser focus on usability, it can potentially develop momentum in mobile that, if it becomes big enough, might also spill over online.

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More coverage from Search Engine Watch (with lots of detail about features), CNET and Gary Price’s Resource Shelf.