Company: Ask Jeeves
Company Description: Ask Jeeves, Inc. is a provider of Web-wide search technologies, providing consumers with authoritative and fast ways to find relevant information to their everyday searches. Ask Jeeves deploys its search technologies on Ask.com, Ask.co.uk, Teoma.com and AJKids.com. Ask Jeeves is based in Emeryville, California, with offices in New York, Boston, New Jersey, Los Angeles and London.
Nomination Category: Company, Office & Product Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Business Turnaround

Nomination Title: Ask Jeeves, The Success Story

Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved in 2003 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

In April 1997, Ask Jeeves made its debut on the Web. The mission of the site was
to provide a simple and easy way for people to find information online using natural
language. This innovative approach made the company an early leader in the
search space.

In late 2000, Ask Jeeves found itself in a difficult situation:
· Traffic was starting to decline
· Its technology had fallen behind alternative search technologies
· Online advertising revenue was in sharp decline
· Competitors such as Google were gaining traction

In response to these developments, Ask Jeeves took some time to refocus on its
search technology, in order to offer the easiest and most relevant search
experience on the Internet. The company embarked on a turnaround by refining the
priorities of the organization to put greater focus on search and customer needs.
Ask Jeeves also hired a more seasoned management team, including current
CEO, Steve Berkowitz, who helped lead the charge of the company turnaround as
the then President of Ask Jeeves Web Properties.

In September of 2001, Ask Jeeves acquired Teoma, an upstart that approached
searching the Web in an entirely different way than any other engine to date,
including the highly-regarded Google search technology.  The Teoma technology
was integrated into the company’s flagship Web property, Ask.com and the
company saw an immediate 35% increase in user satisfaction.

Ask Jeeves announced profitability in Q4 of 2002, proving that the company was
not only a “dotcom survivor,” but had grown into a thriving, successful and
innovative Internet business that has staying power in the very hot and competitive
search engine space.

In 2003, Ask Jeeves continued to deliver on its promise of offering a great user
search experience. The company announced the elimination of all pop-up
advertising, banners and interstitials on its Web site; a move that was heralded by
users who once claimed that the Ask.com Web site was too cluttered. 

Ask Jeeves also announced a major site redesign and upgrade in the spring of
2003, and introduced the concept of “Smart Search,” which enables users to
conduct more effective searches by helping narrow, broaden or more directly
answer user queries. The functionalities include direct answers to weather, stocks
and conversions, as well as further advanced product search capabilities. The
company’s efforts over the past 18 months to improve the core performance and
functionality of Ask.com have resulted in a great everyday search engine that is
ranked as the second most popular pure search site on the Internet. 
 
The company’s stock performance during 2003 speaks volumes to the turnaround.
Ask Jeeves was the 51st ranked stock out of 3229 companies on the NASDAQ
and was the 7th best performing stock in the Bay Area for 2003. The price of Ask
Jeeves stock has soared more than 500% this year and is currently trading at
$18.23. The company continues to grow its market share and has grown its traffic
76% during 2003.

Ask Jeeves was recently featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather as a
technology company that is hiring and whose outlook is bright for 2004.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: List each link on a separate line, begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.website.com]:

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106115787227742500,00.html

http://www.searchenginelowdown.com/2003_12_01_searchlowdown_archive.html#
107125023498765164

http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/03/cz_bb_0403chartroom.html

http://www.forbes.com/2003/02/03/cz_kd_0203jeeves.html

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?f=articles/2003/10/bec828eb-5e42-41f5-8cca-888f64f7b235/bec828eb-5e42-41f5-8cca-888f64f7b235.xml

http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/3103941

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113265,00.asp

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3103381

http://www.forbes.com/2003/06/12/cz_jc_0612soapbox.html

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

As president and CEO, Steve Berkowitz is responsible for all business related to
Ask Jeeves, Inc. In his prior role as president, Berkowitz is credited with building
the management team that orchestrated the turnaround of Ask.com.

Prior to joining Ask Jeeves, Berkowitz was the President and COO of IDG Books,
where he successfully expanded the “Dummies” series of books into a celebrated
consumer brand covering everything from C++ to pet care. He also oversaw the
acquisitions of Cliffs Notes, Frommers Travel Guides, Betty Crocker Cookbooks
and JK Lasser Tax Guides, which established the company as a global consumer
book publisher.