Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> Ask.com, a search engine that no longer innovates but happily takes in $400 million in annual revenue

Holy crap. I must have taken a wrong turn in life. HOW?!




Toolbars and arbitrage.


What arbitrage, exactly?...


They advertise their own search result pages on Google, then sell a bunch of ads at higher CPC on their page, with the idea being that they'll make enough on the commission from the second ad to pay for the Google ad with a profit.


Didn't Google cut that out a long time ago? I didn't find any evidence that Ask was still doing this.



basically malware (ask toolbar)


They have a massive office building in the East Bay, too, every time I passed it I asked myself how in the????


That's actually closer to their quarterly earnings according to IAC's earnings releases (see search and apps) (http://ir.iac.com/results.cfm?Quarter=&Year=2013).




Consider applying for YC's W25 batch! Applications are open till Nov 12.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: