If you’ve been using the web for years, you may remember glorious search engines of the past like DEC’s AltaVista. Eclipsed by Google, AltaVista lives on today as a test bed for Yahoo! technology, although that may no longer be the case once the Bing-Yahoo! agreement is fully implemented. Seasoned search engine marketing (SEM) professions will probably also recognize other names like Fast technology’s AlltheWeb and Amazon’s A9. One of my favorites was Teoma.
Teoma way back in 2001
Figure 1: Teoma in 2001
Teoma is dead… or maybe not
Launched in 2000, it was later bought by Ask.com (Ask Jeeves in the UK) and met the fate of dead search engines in 2006. Or maybe not, as I noticed to my surprise a few days ago:
Holy search engine redux Batman! IAC Search & Media has resurrected Teoma, previously redirected to Ask.com http://bit.ly/d0ZthH #seo
Sean Carlos
seancarlos
Figure 2: Fun with new tweet quotes, too!
Teoma circa 2010
Figure 3: Teoma in 2010
There was a time when I had high hopes for Ask.com as a potential counter weight to Google dominance, even going to great lengths to document the Ask.com API, closed to external use in 2007. After many staff cuts, and Ask’s clear use of AdWords Arbitrage, I began to have some doubts about Ask’s future.
The official word on Teoma from Ask.com
None the less, the rebirth of Teoma.com aroused my interest. The Teoma site and Ask.com’s blog are both silent on the subject, so I contacted Ask.com directly. They kindly provided the following:
As we announced in November, we are focused on building the best service for answering questions and delivering the best results for searches posed as questions on Ask.com. We re-launched Teoma.com in mid-April to provide a simplified interface for everyday keyword web search. Teoma.com’s organic results will be similar to, but not exactly the same as, those on Ask.com, primarily for testing purposes, but also to provide a more simplified search experience.
So it sounds like Teoma is playing a role similar to that of AltaVista for Yahoo!. That Teoma is back may signal new signs of life at Ask.com; I’d love to be convinced that IAC’s Ask.com is back in the search engine game. Tell-tale signs would include Engineers being hired and an end to the AdWords arbitrage on Google. External developers would have access to the Ask.com API again. And what about national versions of ask.com, such as de.ask.com and it.ask.com? They seem so neglected. Only time will tell.
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Sean Carlos is a web marketing consultant & teacher, assisting companies with their Search (SEO + PPC = SEM), Social Media & Digital Media Measurement strategies. Sean first worked with text indexing in 1990 in a project for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Since then he worked for Hewlett-Packard Consulting and later as IT Manager of a real estate website before founding Antezeta in 2006. Sean is an 
Nice use of Blackbird Pie to drop that tweet in!
Anyway, to the actual point in blog. I’m always excited to see developments like this. OK, Ask isn’t ever going to take on Google, but the more competent search engines there are, the better the web is for users.
And if Teoma is a step in that direction, then it’s brilliant.
Simplicity makes Teoma interesting, but it has too many ads though. I also like AAfter Search for less ads, and quick link to dictionary and local yellow pages.
nice, and form me Teoma is a very interesting project.
How ignorant can bloggers be? There is no Teoma there just a site with some ads. and Barry Schwartz should really know better – it only proves that the guy has no clue.