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Ask tries U.K. guerrilla marketing campaign

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
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Elinor Mills
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Web search company Ask.com has secretly launched a guerrilla marketing campaign in the United Kingdom in an effort to boost its profile in a land dominated by Google users. Posters with a hand holding a megaphone and urging people to "Stop the Online Information Monopoly" recently began appearing in London underground trains and stations. See a photo on Valleywag, which first reported on the ads.

Ask's name is not on the posters, but the company plans to reveal that it is behind the ads by disclosing that on the Web site listed on the posters on Wednesday night, says Ask Chief Executive Jim Lanzone.

The marketing campaign was born out of Ask's frustration with Google's dominance (75 percent market share) in the U.K., according to Lanzone. Through surveys "we've found that 62 percent of U.K. users give little to no thought to which search engine they use. It's been hard to break through in that market," he said. "So, we're raising the issue in a tongue-and-cheek fashion. We want people to explore new options. We're certainly not saying Google has done anything wrong in the process."

Ask's multi-month ad campaign will extend to print, radio, television and billboards. Lanzone said he was surprised at how quickly the ads have gotten attention by bloggers and the public. But, judging by some of the feedback on the Web site, Ask could be in for some backlash.

"I must confess to having been a bit disappointed after the intriguing tube ad," a visitor named Alex wrote on Saturday.

A visitor named Matt complained that he couldn't understand what the purpose of the site was: "I felt compelled to leave a comment. I studied memetics in the past--a theory of information transfer, and ultimately I've read everything on this site and don't quite understand what this site / movement / manifesto is trying to achieve."

And someone using the alias "PanK" agreed with the message but was skeptical about its sponsor. "However, you forgot to mention who are the professionals that have set up this site. Who tells me that this isn't a Yahoo, MSN or Ask promotion against Google?"