His simple explanation of what makes Ask.com different says "What really differentiates us is our focus on search. Other companies are partnering with content companies and launching wi-fi networks. But we're not building a rocket ship. We're building a better car. It's not what people want in five years. It's what they want right now.
But what are these features?
A typical search on Ask for 'commercial property', for instance, returns listings as any user would expect: sponsored links at the top followed by organic listings. What's different is that directly below these links is a set of tiny binoculars which, when rolled over, produce a screenshot of the site listed. Another feature is to the right of the screen. Where most users would expect further sponsored links, Ask provides a set of links under the heading 'narrow your search', 'expand your search' and 'related names'. The bottom of the page features further sponsored listings which allows ask to provide more content before ads to users.
Of the other major search engines only Yahoo! comes close to delivering the same style of listing in comparison to Google and Microsoft Live (formerly MSN).
Amongst other search innovations, Ask will be launching one that will have an impact on its search system for blogs. The technology for this venture was created when Ask acquired Bloglines last year. This blog search along with proposed map and image search tools will offer users a style of searching that the other search engines will have to take notice of. Interestingly, Monday saw the launch of search functionality on Bloglines, a feature powered by Ask and offering.
Another development up the Ask sleeve is 'ExpertRank', which clusters sites according to topic communities through the Teoma search engine which Ask.com is built on, another of Ask's purchases from 2001. This allows the search engine to find related terms for users when searching. For example, should you search for 'ozone layer' sites it will also return sites on 'global warming'.
There is no doubt that the Ask.com engine still has more developments to unveil and as the search market speeds forward it may well be those who are 'building better cars' not 'rocket ships' that stay the course.
