I say, firing that butler was the
best thing we've ever done.

Search engine Ask.com has seen a marked increase in the e-business category per its last set of numbers in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, besting all other online companies in 2007.

Ask, formerly Ask Jeeves, has devoted much of early 2007 to revamping its market offering with more aggressive ad spend - both online and off - as well as stronger online media relationships (notably with Microsoft), as well as customer-centric search engine features like the AskEraser.

These efforts have apparently begun to pay off, even considering Google's dominance in the search engine realm.

The University of Michigan's Annual American Customer Satisfaction Index reports the highest percent increase by Ask out of any online company, rising from a rating of 71 in 2006 to 75 in 2007.

The score also reflects a 21 percent increase in customer satisfaction since the Ask Jeeves days, which posted a lackluster score of 62 in 2002. This is reportedly the largest increase of any online company in the history of the Index.

CEO Jim Lanzone of Ask interprets the results as proof that "the search category is still evolving, and innovation still really matters."

The annual American Customer Satisfaction Index was released today on www.theacsi.org. MarketingCharts provides data and charts from the Index.