If Ask is still better than Google...

J D Lassica writes in praise of the new Ask, pointing out the new Ajax homepage, the superior maps, the image search...it's all good. The only problem is that no less influential a commentator than Walter Mossberg pointed out the superiority of the old Ask back in March, and it doesn't seem to have prevented Google from securing its position as search market leader nor capturing a staggering 25% of the whole US online ad market (eMarkerter). So, here's the lesson - you can build a better search engine than Google. You can get the great and the good to tell everyone you've done it. It doesn't make a blind bit of difference. Having demonstrated the consistent failure of that strategy...what is left for  Google's competitor's to try? (Verticalisation, perhaps - but that's the same as conceding the first two pages of search and racing for the third, and brings its own problems.) And what does it bode for a fading Yahoo! (SeekingAlpha) that better search platforms (SEW) just don't seem to help in the struggle against Mountain View's finest?