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It’s no secret that various Google services have been experiencing problems lately. Now Ask is having a bit of fun at its competitor’s expense, and has pointed out yet another product failure.

The product in question? A Google pen. In a satirical blog post, Ask reveals that “Scott Grieder, Ask.com Group Product Manager, was taking notes on an important conference call when his Google Pen ran out of ink without warning. The lapse in this fundamental Google product/service forced him to switch pens at a critical moment, resulting in considerable inconvenience and loss of data.”

The Ask.com Team then provides “evidence” of the failure – a picture of a scratched-up section of paper and an Excel spreadsheet portraying an ominous plunge in productivity. (There’s a picture of the Google pen as well, if you’re interested.)

The post concludes with two mock updates. “It’s working again,” declared the first. “Turns out there was ink in it after all. Thanks to Matt Cutts who suggested we ‘try shaking it a lot.’”

The second update, sadly, informs readers that “[i]t just ran out again.”

This isn’t really the sort of behavior you expect from a major corporation, but Ask has often prided itself on being an “alternative” search engine (remember this commercial?). Also, the story was properly filed within the company’s blog, as opposed to its section for press releases. Lastly . . .well, hey, it’s funny, so I don’t mind.

Hat tip to Barry Schwartz, who also covered some of the more serious issues that Google has encountered.

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