Bloglines Update - September 10, 2010

Today, Ask.com let our users know that we will shut down Bloglines on October 1 November 1. Not an easy decision, especially considering our loyal and supportive (not to mention patient) user base, but, ultimately, the right one given business reasons simply too hard to ignore.

Primarily, it’s about focus. Our focus here at Ask is on building out our Q&A offering. Our beta, released in a very limited fashion at the end of July, is seeing steady community growth with an answer to question ratio of 2:1, which underscores the fact people are motivated to provide answers. Another encouraging metric? On average, users who are active within the community are asking 2 questions a day. These early numbers build on the competitive advantage we already have in the marketplace – the fact that 30% of the searches on our site are already in the form of a question – and are further proof Ask needs to continue its tight focus on delivering the best possible answers to users.

Read more…
http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

The Recent E-mail From Ask.com:

Just letting you know that the Bloglines service will remain accessible until Nov 1 – one month past the original deadline. We have built in extra time to ensure that we address all of our users’ needs around exporting their feeds and preserving data. So rest easy for another month, and stay tuned for further details!

Thanks again for your patience and support.

The Bloglines / Ask.com Team