Keep an Eye on Ask.com

The big three players in search for the last few years have always been Google, Yahoo and MSN Live. Ask.com (formerly AskJeeves.com) has been around for years as one of the minor players but has yet to break out. Ask is making some strong strides to compete with the big boys though. Their new interface, Ask3D, is by far the most appealing of any of the current search engines. The appearance fits in very well with the latest web design techniques but their form of universal search (Ask3d) is much easier to navigate and easier on the eyes. Google rarely makes big usability changes to its interface but as they continue to master their universal search, I anticipate there will be some interface changes that compare with Ask.com. Google is still by far the #1 search engine and produces the most relevant results but Ask.com may make the SEO industry take notice and draw searchers away with their fresh looking interface.