Author Archive

Today we rolled out some new features to help you keep up with all the information that is important to you.

Hotkeys
If you prefer using your keyboard to mousing around, you'll be happy to know we've added these shortcut keys. You will find this legend at the bottom of each feed display page:

On a personal note, I must say these hotkeys rock! If you are like me and seem to get a gazillion articles in your Bloglines every day, these hotkeys are for you. I used to go through a finger stretching, huff & puff ritual before I reached for my mouse and dove in to Bloglines. No more, thanks to Bloglines' hotkeys. My absolute favorite is 'j' which allows me to jump from article to article instead of scrolling. I can now read my Bloglines in half the time, no joke!

But wait! There's more...

Unread vs. Keep As New
There's a difference between "Unread" articles and those marked "Keep as New" (subtle, but distinct), so you will now see two numbers next to your subscribed feeds in parentheses. The number to the left of the colon represents the articles you have not read/seen before, and the number on the right represents the articles you have manually kept new.

Mobile
For those who enjoy using Bloglines on the run, we've added a couple of features from Bloglines to our Mobile edition.

* First, you can now access enclosure links in blog articles, allowing you to view images or listen to your favorite podcasts from your mobile device.

* Second, you can now use the "Keep as New" option for articles you have previously read, allowing you to scroll through as many articles as you want and come back to them later.

And finally, the ginsu knives of Bloglines...

Universal Inbox
Continuing the rollout of "unique-to-me" features like weather and package tracking, we've partnered with Astrology.com to deliver daily, weekly and monthly horoscopes, and Lottery.com to bring you lottery winning numbers and jackpot values for any state in the USA.

Please let us know what you think about our new features. No need to send email, just post to your blog and our Bloglines saved searches will pick up your feedback.

Robyn DeuPree

Ask Jeeves continues to go beyond the typical ho-hum search-results page. We have once again expanded coverage within popular content areas on Ask.com.

Video Games

From broad overview information searches like Grand Theft Auto to the more specific like MTV Music Generator 2.0 reviews or Final Fantasy PS2 cheats, we try to get you the information faster.

Explore FAQ's, Trailers, walkthroughs and more of the latest videogames content as seen on Gamepro.com, Games.net, Gamerhelp.com, and Gametrailers.net right from our search box.

Recipes

Whether you're looking to make some homemade Halloween treats, trying to figure out what to do with that chicken you defrosted last night or are just trying to cook something quick and easy - we have the feature for you. We've partnered with AllRecipes.com in order to provide a powerful Smart Search experience that serves up some of their most popular & highest rated recipes and delivers them right to your fingertips. In fact, I already started doing dry runs of a holiday meal in order to get over my fear of entertaining dinner guests:

* Pumpkin Pie recipes
* Thanksgiving recipes
* Turkey recipes

Come and get it.

Brendan Hallett
Ask.com Product Manager

Just 8 months into its vertiginous transoceanic existence, Ask España is out of beta and has brought a unique and differentiated search experience to Spanish Internet users. Check it out at www.ask.es.

Announced in press conference in Madrid, the site offers a wide variety of features to help searchers find what they are looking for faster: solid Spanish language and Spain specific search options; Binoculars to preview results; the possibility of storing and sharing web pages and images through MiAsk; related search for suggestions to refine queries; News, Local, Product and Download channels in partnership with leading providers; Bloglines Notifier; and the just released toolbar: Barra Ask.

In addition, the Ask España search box will be present in some of the most significant Spanish media thanks to recent agreements with Zeta and Godó groups and ¡Hola! The Barra Ask is also available for download in www.softonic.com, the most popular download portal in Spanish language, as well as Terra's download area.

The feedback on both printed and online media has been very positive so far (brush up your high school Spanish and take a look at our Press section on www.ask.es or check PCWorld, ABC or Expansion to get an idea) and, with today's marketing launch, should give one last push to a search engine that has no equivalent in Spain.

Thanks to everyone who tested the beta site and provided feedback to help us deliver the best possible product for our formal launch.

Caption: Part of the mural created by Nano 4814 for Ask España. The piece is now on exhibition at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The proceeds from its eBay auction will be donated to Fundación Chadra, the charity working to help get people online.

Jaime Sunen
Ask España

Read The English Version

Tras apenas ocho meses de vertiginosa existencia transoceánica, Ask España ha abandonado su fase beta y ofrece una experiencia de búsqueda única y diferenciada a los internautas españoles.

Recién anunciado en rueda de prensa en Madrid, el sitio cuenta con una sólida oferta: opciones de búsqueda en España y en español; vistas en miniatura utilizando los Prismáticos; la posibilidad de guardar y compartir páginas web e imágenes en MiAsk; sugerencias para precisar las búsquedas; canales de Noticias, Productos, Descargas y Local en colaboración con empresas líderes en cada sector; Notificador Bloglines; y la recién estrenada Barra Ask.

La ventana de búsqueda de Ask España también estará presente en algunos de los medios de comunicación más importantes del país gracias a los recientes acuerdos con los grupos Zeta y Godó y ¡Hola! La Barra Ask puede descargarse desde ahora en www.softonic.com, el portal de descargas más popular de España, y el área de descargas de Terra.

Los comentarios en prensa impresa y virtual han sido muy alentadores en todo momento (echad un vistazo a nuestro apartado de Prensa en www.es.ask.com y PcWorld, ABC o Expansion y, unidos al lanzamiento de marketing de hoy, deberían dar un empujón definitivo a un buscador que no tiene equivalente en el mercado español.

Muchas gracias a todos los usuarios que han probado el sitio en su versión beta y nos han ayudado con sus comentarios a ofrecer el mejor producto posible.

Caption: Fragmento del mural de Nano 4814 realizado por encargo de Ask España. Ahora expuesta en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, la obra será subastada en eBay y los beneficios donados a la Fundación Chadra.

Jaime Sunen
Ask España

Today we released some upgrades to Ask Jeeves Desktop Search that make it faster to find things on your computer, in your email, and on the Web. 

Desktop search presents an interesting challenge, significantly different from Web search.  In crawling files and emails we don't have the benefit of leveraging the social network of the Web to determine relevance (at least not yet).  Instead, most of the content you are searching for has a personal relevance factor and usually has a time component.  You're either looking for something over and over again or you need to find something from a long time ago. 

Here are some of the new features for AJDS: 

-- Folder Indexing Preferences (choose what to index!)

-- Improved PDF indexing

-- Email attachment name indexing

-- Improved Zip file indexing

-- Enhanced previews for Office files

-- Indexing of iTunes metadata (search by title, artist, album, genre, and year)

-- Search term highlighting

-- Full Outlook Express support

-- Pause indexing (with new animated indexing graphic)

-- Improved stability overall 

-- New homepage with most recently viewed files

-- Improved status callouts

-- Writely document search (yes, Web-based word processing search...in a desktop search tool!)

(For those who have been asking about API and Extension support, rest assured they are on the roadmap.)

As always feedback is appreciated!

Jeff Sidlosky
Manager, Desktop Search

We would like to take this opportunity to extend a hearty thanks to everyone at Ask Jeeves who helped us move into our new Campbell office. There's no love lost here for the old Los Gatos office whose dingy halls harkened back to the 90's... cramped, stacked and smelling of stale mountain dew. Goodbye and good riddance to Los Gatos (not the city, just the office) and Hellooo Campbell.

Caption: Ask Jeeves Campbell Office; Apply now and help us fill these parking spaces!

It didn't take long for us to start decorating our spacious 2.0 digs with fake plants, rattan sofas, bean bags and camo netting. But Campbell isn't all about coding, lounging and hiding from the enemy. We're keeping active with billiards, air hockey, parking lot basketball and a sweet new ping pong table . The Bloglines team is especially more productive now that they don't have to fend off deadly aces from the Desktop Search team.

As you can see, there's plenty of room for new people so if you want to join a cool bunch of hard-working, dedicated search engine combattants check out our job listings.

Caption: Ask.com Bocce Tournament at Campo di Bocce

Everyone was skeptical when Mark Fletcher suggested we celebrate our recent move with a Bocce competition with some of our colleages in Oakland. But we had a blast! It's a mashup of bowling, lawn darts and croquette. We couldn't remember the name of the little ball so someone renamed it the Snitch in honor of Harry Potter's Quidditch game. Shhhh.... don't tell the Italians.

Sincerely,
The Ask.com Campbell Office Residents

P.S. Special Thanks to Pam Bocci [ no relation ;) ] for arranging all the tournament details!

My name is Saqib Mausoof and I am a Business Intelligence manager here at Ask Jeeves. I recently took time off from work to help in the relief effort in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that hit Pakistan on October 8th.

   

I left on Halloween night and spent sixteen days in Kashmir and Balakot working with an organization called Sungi, who partner with Oxfam in providing shelter and food to the refugees. My task was to visit far off villages to do need assessment on a household basis as well overseeing distribution. I also helped in data gathering and shelter engineering.

A full blog of my experience can be found at Mission Kashmir. Here's a sample entry:

Camp Life
Today is a big day for us. The Sangi engineer has finally installed a Latrine. There is no running water, but it is nice to be enclosed in a sheeted area. However, the Army folks are still using the Kunhar River as a natural toilet. Thank God we are upstream to them.

The camp is comprised of eight tents. They are weatherproof, so even when it rains, we are pretty much dry. However, it is getting cold now. We are living like the refugees, in tents, using nice woolen blankets made in Spain. Now we have an intrepid cook named Yonus, who was using my REI quick-drying towel as a cooking rag.   Not his fault – I left it hanging to dry – and it blew away and he thought it was a very useful rag. Last night he made us rice and lobia (red beans). Needless to say, the seven people in my tent were very audible. I am sleeping with a volunteer from Sargodha, a teacher named Ihtisham from Abottabad, who was interviewed by the BBC as the first man to climb up the Makra (Spider) mountain (because it sits between Balakot and Kashmir like a spider), Gert from Belgium who reminds me of a kind hearted bumbling Knight (I am reading Crusades through the Arab eyes by Amin Malouf). He is 6 feet 5 inches tall with wild curly blonde hair and has cut his hand twice in food distribution efforts. In addition, we have Tim and Kathleen from Melbourne, Australia, my friend Jawad from San Francisco, Tony Halliday from Oxford, England and Sakuma from Tokyo, Japan.  Read more>>

Saqib Mausoof

Editor's Note  - Additional Links
* Save The Children
* Oxfam America
* Sungi Earthquake 2005
* Earthquake Activity Smart Answer

Hey everyone.  We just released an upgraded toolbar for Firefox 1.5, so if you're a Firefox user please give it a whirl. You can save locations for personalized news, maps and weather, as well as save pictures and searches right from the toolbar. Users that have tried it so far seem to like it: it's rated a 4.7 out of 5 on Mozilla.org.  It would have gotten 5 out of 5 but we got dissed by the East German judge.

Sam Nunez

What's in your stocking? New language tools on Ask.com to help find what you are looking for faster.

1.  Page Translation is now available on Ask.com. Why haven't we had it in the past? Because we didn't have many foreign-language pages in our index. As we approach site launches in Europe next year, the index has taken on a more international flavor. Voila! We need a codebreaker for those who do not speak seven languages (like most of the folks on our international team). Look for the “Translate this page” link.

Give it a try:

* Voila
* Angela Merkel
* Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

 

2.  For traditional Definitions, we have upgraded our Dictionary Smart Answers to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:

* Define intuitive
* Define underdog

Smart Answers are always good, but dig deeper and you'll find the new, full Reference Pages for each given term: http://www.ask.com/reference/dictionary/ahdict/53302/word

You may also notice Web Answers (which we introduced earlier this year) working behind the scenes, in the first "blue link", for definitions:

* Define thesaurus

 

3. This nifty tool also works for Synonyms thanks to our integration of Roget's Thesaurus:

* Another word for brilliant
* Synonyms for useful
* Fast synonyms

There are Reference Pages for Synonyms, too: http://www.ask.com/reference/thesaurus/roget/3277/robust

 

4. Never get caught off guard by random words again. Where possible, we offer direct access to audio pronunciations as well as word meanings…our own little Search and Speak if you will. Look for the sound icon :

* Define magnificent
* Define grand

 

Happy Holidays,

Hope Hackett