Ask.com Flops its AskCity Debut

Early Monday morning, while most of us were filling our coffee cups and dreading the week ahead, Ask.com released their “latest and greatest product,” AskCity.

While the development for the site is beyond exciting, the blog post announcing the project was not.

Andy Beal over at Marketing Pilgrim brought to light the absurdity of the Ask.com announcement. The addition to the Ask.com family could be monumental, yet the Monday morning blog post left me scratching my head in wonder: Does the new beginning warrant a proper introduction?

The post simply read: “AskCity local search, Our latest and greatest product, hit the streets as of the wee hours this morning, and we couldn’t be happier. Look for a more detailed post about AskCity later today.”

The first question I had was amazingly the same question Andy addressed in his post: Why did they not have a detailed post already prepared?

Later in the day is insufficient. A detailed post should have accompanied the release.

My reason for criticizing the announcement was to call your attention to marketing techniques that REALTORs cannot overlook. Plan for a huge release of a new service, product, or development in your company. You spent your time and energy on the project. Take the time to lay out an introduction that tells your audience how beneficial the development is to them.

While I am bringing attention to the feeble efforts for publicizing the release… I’m not knocking the site itself.

I did take the time to examine the new tool, and evaluate the true benefits of the system, and I must say I was impressed.

With search capabilities for businesses, events, movies, and maps & directions, the site offers a combination of Moviefone, Mapquest, and Yellow Book all on one interface.

AskCity effectively integrates IAC’s Citysearch and Ticketmaster, giving users the ability to search for an event and then purchase tickets without having to do much more than enter the name of the artist, venue, or event.

The site is fantastic. A valuable lesson can be taken from its release:

When your business launches a new idea bound for greatness, tell the world about its potential. You can’t sit by and wait for the developments to gain popularity and take off on their own.

Will it make a difference for AskCity? Probably not. Would it make a difference for a REATOR’s site? Absolutely.