Cherrystew

March 13, 2005

"Ask Your Mama" Redefines Search Engines

Most internet surfers have tried AskJeeves.com at least once. The people that don't head back to Google or other major engines after going to AskJeeves are drawn to the Q: & A: format that makes it feel like you're asking a question to a real human rather than trying to break what you need down into keywords for web crawlers to properly digest.

The latest in search engines steps away from both ways of searching. The what will probably be controversial, "Ask Your Mama" search engine will probably get you to the least amount of pertinent websites, but claims that you'll also forget about what you were looking for in the first place. When typing in keywords like, "buy", "used car", the Ask Your Mama search will produce answers like, "What the hell do you need a car for?" and "Yeah, you better believe it won't be new." This search engine will either make you laugh, or it will give you a complex deep with second guessing yourself, if you're not already doing so. The purpose of Ask Your Mama is more to remind you that you're not in charge, whatever you're looking for is selfish and unnecessary, and even if you did find it, you don't deserve it, rather than a means to find something or someone.

Some testers tried out a preference in the advanced search section that lets you select a "Sweet Mama" search. These results will soften down the results for the unstable and previously traumatized. Some Sweet Mama results included in a search for "garden equipment" were, "That's so sweet that you wanna grow flowers for your Mama." and "When you get done shopping, Baby, will you mow the lawn, please, Sweetie?" Despite the Sweet Mama preference, test runs of Ask Your Mama showed that most people were surprisingly drawn to the default Mama which testers say has "that sting like their real Mama".

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