Author Archive

With all of the focus on our flagship brand changing, we wanted to point out another brand shift we'll be making soon: we are rolling the Teoma brand in to Ask, pointing the Teoma.com domain to our main homepage.

As we've detailed before, when Teoma was acquired back in late 2001, it was a pioneering, 7-person shop that had developed some next-generation algorithms and a promising search engine. Since then, it has served as the heart of the technology underlying Ask Jeeves, and has been the foundation of our resurgence in search. The algorithm, one way we uniquely determine relevance, will be known as ExpertRank going forward.

We have exponentially grown the team, now known as the Ask Search Technology team, over the years. They are still located in central New Jersey, near Rutgers, where Teoma was founded. (Though some AST employees also work in our Campbell, CA office, as Matt Cutts and Microsoft's incessantly cold-calling recruiters also know.) So, the spirit of the original Teoma not only lives on, it is very much still a part of what we do.

At this point, the only feature on Teoma.com that is not on Ask.com is the "Resources", or hubs, pages. But given that this receives less than a 1% click-rate, we don't think many people will miss it, though Gary Price says it is popular in the librarian community...so we'll be sure to revisit that issue when we have time. But with the introduction of the new Ask, the time is finally right to make the move.

So to those of you who still visit the Teoma.com domain , we invite you to make the move with us (except for those scrapers/bots out there in Eastern Europe!). You'll find everything to be errily familiar...

It's...alive!!!

On Sunday night at around 8:15pm PST we officially launched the new Ask.com into orbit. As usual with these things, it's not without some bugs here and there, so we'll get right on those. But she's up there and she's a beaute.

Our press release is here for those of you who missed the news. Thanks to all of you who covered the launch yesterday, from news pubs to bloggers. We appreciate it.

We started work on the new site in earnest last Fall. Besides the coming rebrand as Ask.com, we took the opportunity to try to build a better foundation for many of the tools we've built over the past 3 or 4 years. That led us to several months of iterations and testing on what eventually became the "Toolbox" on the right side of the new homepage. Trust us, it may look simple but it didn't start out that way. :)

The Toolbox puts all of our search tools on "speed dial", as Jim was quoted saying in the AP article. We fell in love with its simple usability, as well as the Zen feeling you get from clicking through the different tools, watching the homepage transform seamlessly as you go. This solved two problems for us: 1) Educating our users more strongly about the existence of these tools; and 2) Integrating them in a way that was both easy to use and didn't add too much clutter. We also added the ability to customize it, open and close it, and drag and drop the ordering of it. In the future, we plan to open it up so you can add whatever tools you want. We also plan to take it to content, for example being able to see your RSS feeds on the left by clicking Reader on the right. (Right now the Bloglines link goes to your Bloglines MyFeeds page, if you are a registered user.)

In addition to the new homepage, we also launched new Maps, Encyclopedia, Kids, and Desktop search products yesterday. They are also described in the press release.

We are particularly proud of the Maps product. We feel that it is the best Maps product in the market for building an itinerary for a journey, through differentiated tools like draggable pushpins, right-click to add locations, the ability to add up to 10 locations, aerial photography views, an open/close slider, and the "Play" button. There are also some cool hotkey functions AND the opportunity to purchase photos of any aerial view by clicking "Get Photo". In the future we'll use Maps as a platform for many more products, such as our next rev on Local. Stay tuned.

One thing we didn't really change with this release was our results page. In fact the only real change we made was switching from Verdana to Arial font. (Bonus points for whoever actually noticed that!) Though we tested several changes, we kept coming back to the current page, which is already the most differentiated in the market through its integration of Smart Answers, Binoculars, and Zoom related search on nearly all queries, and through our lack of ads down the right side of the page.

This is just the beginning for the new Ask. Please give it a try and let us know what you think.

As many of you know, yesterday was kind of a big day for us. We finally unveiled the new Ask.com and Barry Diller got a chance to articulate why our search engine is a relevant part of the search world in the keynote address at SES. (Those of you who missed the keynote can listen to it here.)

So what does any self-respecting company do after so much hard work? We partied.

The "Code Red" event, held at Club LQ in Manhattan, had a huge turnout and was worth the trip across town in freezing temperatures. It was definitely the most crowded dance floor we've ever seen at SES...at least where people were actually dancing. We also had flamethrowing, breakdancing Battlebots, video games and great food. Then about 2 hours into the event, Boba Fett showed up with a bunch of Stormtroopers and unveiled Jeeves - who was frozen in carbonite ala Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back. It was amazing. Then people danced around frozen Jeeves all night.

Here are more glimpses of the party, including some videos:

Video: Dancing Battlebots

Video: Carbonite Jeeves

Special thanks to Serin, Usha, Laurie & Annie for orchestrating such a wonderful celebration. And thanks everyone for coming!

Inside Ask Maps

The new Maps product we launched last week has had a fantastic response from our users, the press, and the blogosphere . This has turned out to be both a good and bad thing for Maps. We are getting unprecedented traffic to it (way above my projections, at least), but that is slowing it down. We even got a feel of the "Digg effect ". Luckily, our engineering team has already figured out several optimizations and improvements that we plan on implementing over the next couple of weeks that is going to improve the speed of maps significantly.

Also there seem to be a lot of people comparing our aerial imagery with our competitors. We believe our partners at GlobeXplorer have the most comprehensive and rich set of satellite and aerial imagery in the United States, and as some of you have noticed, in western Europe (check out this awesome view of The Louvre for all of you Da Vinci Code fans).

So far, we have only tapped into their most recent imagery in 12 major markets in the US. Over the next couple of weeks we will update this across the board, so you will be seeing major enhancements all across the country as they build out their cache (another speed improvement).

Thank you again for all of the great suggestions and feedback (and of course for using our product). Please send over any other comments to us and we'll make our Maps product even better for the next round!

Andy Yang
Product Manager, Ask Maps

The new Maps product we launched last week has had a fantastic response from our users, the press, and the blogosphere . This has turned out to be both a good and bad thing for Maps. We are getting unprecedented traffic to it (way above my projections, at least), but that is slowing it down. We even got a feel of the "Digg effect ". Luckily, our engineering team has already figured out several optimizations and improvements that we plan on implementing over the next couple of weeks that is going to improve the speed of maps significantly.

Also there seem to be a lot of people comparing our aerial imagery with our competitors. We believe our partners at GlobeXplorer have the most comprehensive and rich set of satellite and aerial imagery in the United States, and as some of you have noticed, in western Europe (check out this awesome view of The Louvre for all of you Da Vinci Code fans).

So far, we have only tapped into their most recent imagery in 12 major markets in the US. Over the next couple of weeks we will update this across the board, so you will be seeing major enhancements all across the country as they build out their cache (another speed improvement).

Thank you again for all of the great suggestions and feedback (and of course for using our product). Please send over any other comments to us and we'll make our Maps product even better for the next round!

Andy Yang
Product Manager, Ask Maps

Cela fait longtemps que la communauté française attend l’arrivée d’un nouveau venu sur la scène des moteurs de recherche. Voilà qui est fait ! Ask.com a profité du dévoilement de la nouvelle image de ses sites américain, anglais, japonais, espagnol et allemand pour présenter sa toute nouvelle version française, Ask.com France ^Bêta.

Faites comme des milliers d’autres utilisateurs et venez découvrir Ask.com France.

Après l’accueil chaleureux que lui a réservé la presse écrite et en ligne depuis son lancement la semaine dernière, il est fort à parier qu’il deviendra d’ici peu le moteur de recherche de prédilection sur le Web francophone.

"Techniquement, le moteur de recherche dispose d'arguments aptes à séduire" - Yves Grandmontagne, silicon.fr

"…cette bêta ne propose pas encore l'ensemble des fonctionnalités dont dispose sa grande sœur anglophone. Néanmoins, les possibilités sont nombreuses et... pour certaines, vraiment intéressantes!" - Alexandre Laurent, L'Atelier

"Un moteur de plus, peut-être, mais à coup sûr une alternative aux standards actuels du marché qui est la bienvenue." - Génération Nouvelles Technologies

La technologie de pointe utilisée par Ask.com France permet de répondre rapidement et intelligemment aux requêtes des utilisateurs. Grâce à sa méthodologie de classement unique, il fournit de meilleurs résultats de recherche en identifiant les sites les plus fiables et les plus respectés sur le Web.

Loin de se contenter d'offrir un algorithme de référencement hors pair, Ask.com France propose aussi des fonctions et outils destinés à raffiner l’expérience. Parmi ceux-ci, notons les Jumelles permettant la prévisualisation des résultats de recherche ; la traduction en français de sites en langues étrangères ; MonAsk, un espace unique comportant un historique des recherches ainsi que la possibilité d'enregistrer, de publier et de partager des résultats de recherche glanés ici et là sur le Web ; sans oublier un accès aisé à Bloglines, une fenêtre sur le nouveau Web "vivant ".

Et ce n’est qu’un début ! En effet, Ask.com France s’engage à utiliser toutes ses ressources afin de vous offrir un produit à la hauteur de vos attentes, un produit à la fine pointe de la technologie. Ainsi, nous envisageons de proposer de nouveaux services, tels les actualités, cartes et itinéraires, achats en ligne, téléchargements, etc.

D'ici là, nous vous invitons à nous faire part de vos commentaires et suggestions en nous écrivant à cette adresse. Notre objectif : vous offrir ce qu’il y a de mieux.

Brigitte Minault et France Précourt
Responsables pour la France

The French community has been waiting a long time for a newcomer in the search engine arena. The wait is over! At the same time as Ask.com is unveiling a new image for its American, British, Japanese, Spanish and German sites, it presents its brand new French beta version, Ask.com France.

Do as thousands of other users have already done: come and discover Ask.com France.

With the warm welcome it received in the print and online press since its launch of last week, it is to be expected that it will soon become a preferred search engine on the French web.

"Technically, the search engine offers arguments that are bound to seduce." - Yves Grandmontagne, silicon.fr

"  …this beta version does not yet offer all the same features as its big English sister. However, possibilities are numerous and… some of them are quite interesting! " - Alexandre Laurent, L'Atelier

"Another search engine, maybe, but surely an alternative to what currently serves as a yardstick in the industry, and this is welcome news." - Génération Nouvelles Technologies

The advanced technology used by Ask.com France provides fast and intelligent results to users' queries. With its unique ranking methodology, it provides better search results by identifying the most authoritative and respected web sites.

Besides offering a unique ranking algorithm, Ask.com France also offers features and tools that will give you a refined experience. Among them, the Binoculars that give you a preview of search results; the French translation feature for sites written in a foreign language; MyStuff, a unique area where you can save, share and store search results found while browsing the Web; and let's not forget an easy access to Bloglines, your window onto the new "living" Web.

And this is just a beginning! Ask.com France is committed to use all of its resources to offer you a product that is based on the very latest technology and that will surpass your expectations. We will offer you new services, such as news feeds, maps and itineraries, online shopping, downloads, etc.

In the meantime, we invite your comments and suggestions at this address: we aim to offer you the very best search experience.

France Précourt and Brigitte Minault
France Country Specialists

Vi annuncio con immenso piacere che ora anche gli Italiani potranno approfittare della tecnologia di ricerca avanzata Ask. Il nuovo Ask.com Italia è stato lanciato ufficialmente in versione beta l'8 marzo. Probabilmente gli utenti italiani avranno già avuto modo di intravedere Ask.com e provare la sua straordinaria tecnologia, dopo aver letto dell'apertura a Pisa del nostro centro di ricerche europeo. Adesso potranno utilizzarlo in versione localizzata.

Noterete che il nostro maggiordomo-mascotte Jeeves è andato in pensione, lasciandoci una homepage dal look più sobrio e strumenti di ricerca istintivi raccolti nel pratico toolbox.

Uno dei prodotti cool di Ask attualmente disponibile nel sito italiano è MioAsk, il servizio di ricerca personalizzata per salvare facilmente pagine e immagini web, trasferire e condividere informazioni organizzando il tutto in cartelle. C'è poi Bloglines, il perfetto aggregatore di feed dove creare blog personali e trovare la più ricca raccolta dei migliori blog del web, senza installare software. Abbiamo anche aggiunto al nostro sito italiano i Binocoli, uno strumento per visualizzare l'anteprima di un sito senza doverci entrare; infatti passando il mouse sopra l'icona dei binocoli si visualizza un'immagine in miniatura della homepage. Io personalmente uso moltissimo la nostra Ricerca Immagini.

Tutto questo non è che un assaggio! Infatti, prevediamo di localizzare prossimamente per il mercato italiano anche i nuovi servizi già attivati sul sito USA www.ask.com: News, Smart Answers, Related Search e tanti altri.

Ho letto con orgoglio gli articoli pubblicati dalla stampa italiana in cui si denota il grande entusiamo per l'arrivo di un nuovo motore di ricerca sul mercato nazionale.

ComputerWorld Italia presenta ExpertRank, l'algoritmo proprietario di Ask.com, e ne rileva la sua unicità specificando che: "Si basa, come i concorrenti, sulla popolarità dei link analizzando però anche la notorietà e la 'reputazione' presso l'utenza esperta di diversi settori specifici, segmentando il web in 'comunità di siti'".

PC World Italia sottolinea l'originalità degli strumenti presenti su Ask.com USA, "Proprio queste funzionalità, insieme con l'algoritmo proprietario, marcano le differenze con i concorrenti, e una dopo l'altra saranno localizzate per l'Italia".

Il Team e io non vediamo l'ora di ricevere commenti e consigli dagli utenti italiani per aiutarci a perfezionare Ask.com Italia. Date un'occhiata al sito e inviateci le vostre idee e osservazioni all'indirizzo commenti@help.ask.com.

Noi di Ask.com siamo fieri di offrire agli Italiani ricerche web di qualità superiore. Quindi non ci resta che augurarvi buone ricerche!

Raffaella Buschiazzo
Italy Product Specialist

I'm excited to announce that now Italians too can enjoy Ask's advanced search technology. Our new Ask.com Italia was officially launched in beta on March 8. Italian users may have caught a glimpse of Ask.com and its remarkable technology after they read about our newly opened European Research Center in Pisa. Now, they can enjoy it in a localized version.

You will notice that our butler and mascot Jeeves has retired; he leaves us with a sleeker homepage and instinctive search tools, gathered in a convenient toolbox.

One of the cool Ask products currently available on the Italian site is MioAsk, the personalized search service which lets you save web pages, upload and save images, and transfer and share information by organizing contents in folders. Another is Bloglines, our perfect feed aggregator where you can find the most extensive and best quality collection of blogs available on the Web - even create your own blog - without installing any software. We made sure to add the Binoculars website preview tool as well; you just mouse over the binoculars icon to see a thumbnail of the home page, without having to click through to the site itself. I personally use our Image Search all the time.

This is just a taste! In the near future, we expect to offer Italian users the new services already available on the US site www.ask.com: News, Smart Answers, Related Search, and many others, all in a fully localized Italian format.

I've been proudly reading the Italian press and taking notice of the excitement surrounding the arrival of a new search engine in the national market.

ComputerWorld Italia is impressed by the Ask.com proprietary algorithm ExpertRank and points out the engine's uniqueness, "Like its competitors it is based on link popularity but, unlike them, it analyzes also the notoriety and 'reputation' that the links have among the experts of specific fields, subdividing the Web into 'site communities'".

PC World Italia notes the novelty of the tools on Ask.com US: "It is exactly these functionalities, together with the proprietary algorithm, which distinguish it from the competitors and will be localized one after the other for Italy".

The Team and I look forward to receiving comments and suggestions from Italian users to help us perfect Ask.com Italia. Have a look at the site and send us your ideas and feedback at the address commenti@help.ask.com.

Search better on Ask.com Italia!

Raffaella Buschiazzo
Italy Product Specialist

Today's the day to celebrate the Irish.
Remember to wear some green and join in the festivities. We have.

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