Search wars

Why Ask.com cannot displace Google.com as the premier search engine!

I have been seeing a lot of advertising both on the internet and on TV by Ask.com that promises targetted results on users' search queries and not just generic results as supposedly Google.com gives. Ask.com also has introduced features like website preview before even clicking on the the link. All these features and advertising notwithstanding, I don't think Ask.com can replace Google.com as the premier search any time soon for a very simple reason: SEARCH RESULTS.

To test out my theory, I did a simple test I always use on search engines to test their effectiveness. I search my name; Mukul Dharwadkar in both Ask.com and Google.com so that I have same search query. The results were drastically different to say the least as shown in the images below.

Search is all about finding obscure things that are hard to find, that's why I need to search in the first place and of course the result should be current, not historical.

For the reasons mentioned above, I don't think Ask.com can displace google.com as the first choice search engine for many people.

Disclaimer: I did this exercise for my own fun and curiousity and have no financial interests in google.com or ask.com and have not received any incentive to do this from anyone.