Ask.com To Sell User Query Results?

Bill Slawski of SEO by the SEA have posted a new Ask.com’s patent application, where Ask outlines new technology for commerical use of user queries.

In short, Ask is going to sell user query data, including geographic and demographic data.

In general, I love Ask, and hate Google, but Google’s scale of evilness has just been tipped. I don’t want some big fat corporate guy to know what I search, and while I rest assured that my privacy will be complete… I just don’t feel like it can be true.

When you start selling my data, how can I know how much data will you sell?

Sorry Ask, but your career path to search stardom has been cluttered with too many mistakes. Stupid ad campaign (you could spend this money on growing your index and sharpening search results), inefficient management and constant design makeovers.

I still hope that you’ll grow to be #2 search engine… but you’re still very far from being there.