j's scratchpad

 http://tinyurl.com/yoqafb

Stephen Abram of Stephen’s Lighthouse blog has this posting:

“And then there are two?

Well we started 2008 with these top (by far) four:

Google
MSN
Yahoo!
Ask

No longer.

Ask quit the wide search business today. See their stuff here and commentary here and here and here. They laid off 8% of their workforce (or 40 real blood and guts people) including the beloved Gary Price, who is, as usual thoughtful, gentlemanly and philosophical here. All the best Gary. You’re going to do great.

Rumours are that Yahoo! and MS are deep in ’secret’ talks (and it seems likely). Yahoo! continues to release new products and announcements at such a pace that it seems that Yahoos just want them to see the light of day for a brief moment of sunshine. If I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with a neat new product, I’d induce in this environment too.

Anyway, are we heading to Spring conference season with two left standing – MicroHoo and Google?

Is LibraryLand finally ready to offer a compelling alternative to ad supported search?”

http://tinyurl.com/yp4jrb

Here’s Gary Price’s classy response:

“Earlier this afternoon I learned that Ask.com is taking the company in a new and different direction and I will not be a part of it.

The story about the company’s new direction is being announced right now. More here.

Sad news? Sure it is, but it has been a great experience and I’m glad I was able to be a part of. No tears, just smiles. It’s time to move on.”