You Can't Ask Jeeves Anymore
The new http://Ask.com search engine, minus Jeeves the butler, has a simple home page design along the lines of Google, with an unadorned list of major options along the right side. That list is headlined 'Search Tools' and includes:
* Web
* Images
* News
* Maps & Directions
* Local
* Weather
* Encyclopedia
* Ask for Kids
* Dictionary
* Blogs & Feeds
The main search feature (Web) turns up the usual list of keyword-inspired responses. An innovative touch in this section provides suggested phrases (clickable) to either narrow or expand your search. That's an impressive concept, if it works well. It is all too easy to be led into the wilderness with search results; Ask is offering some tools to help short circuit that problem. The image section is similar to other search engines.
The News section shows signs of being a shallow concoction, in need of a full time editorial staff and perhaps some original content. For example, under world news there are three headlines that are nearly identical from three different news feeds – Reuters, CBS and MSNBC. The notion of defining a news story as "found" is a little disconcerting. As is problematic with many similar news searches, a click on one story originating from the Los Angeles Times led to a page demanding that you register as an L.A. Times subscriber (free) in order to read the story. Though frustrating, this can't be entirely laid at the feet of http://Ask.com.
Their Local search is a well done and convenient feature. Enter a product or service (e.g. "tires") and a zip code into a search bar, and Ask will bring up a list of local businesses that provide the product, addresses, phone numbers, websites if available, and a map to the location. Also included is an estimate of the distance between your zip code and the business establishment.
The Encyclopedia button will take you either to Wikipedia, or to a standard Ask search response, or both: the search results headed by a Wikipedia listing. Like the News page, this feature is a cobbled together approach to a service prominently displayed on Ask's home page.
Ask for Kids is a well executed feature, although its news resources button takes you (or your child) to a menu of other sources, such as Yahooligan News, Time for Kids and CNN for Students. There is a search bar on the kid's page that seems to work well. A random search for "dinosaurs" brought up referrals and links to several educational pages on dinosaurs and a drop down menu of dinosaurs by species inviting further research. A well designed feature.
Entering a term for search on the Dictionary page gets you an actual dictionary definition of the word at the top, followed by a standard list of search responses. If the definition feature is thorough, this feature functions just as well as going to an online dictionary such as Merriam Webster. The Dictionary option is a new and positive addition to search page design.
Their Weather button was baffled by my zip code, showing no returns. However the search results below listed a response to the zip code on http://weather.com. If Ask intends to offer a weather service, it should be as effective as the sites that come up on its search mechanism.
The Map service offers street, aerial and regional maps, which is a nice selection. However a random entry of my zip code brought up a map of a location in Poland. I've had this problem before with Google, so Ask may be getting their address data from similar sources. You have the option of entering two locations and asking for a map and driving instructions, as you would on other major search engines.
Overall, http://Ask.com is a standard search engine with some new features, some of which work well and some of which need further refinement.
(ArticlesBase SC #52646)
Asking Questions at the End of Your Job Interview
Should I ask questions at the end of an interview? (01:14)
A Glance at WolframAlpha
The latest challenger to Google's search dominance is Wolfram|Alpha. It's a contextual search engine and differs from other search engines in many key ways. WolframAlpha is being hailed as a victory for the "semantic web," where computers become more adept at understanding the context in language, as opposed to asking users to adjust to computer language. (03:31)
How will Twitter monetize?
So many people at SXSWi were talking about how Twitter has no business model and how will it make money and that made me laugh out loud! So today I answer the question so many have asked with this video and I talk about the page that I now view as the MOST IMPORTANT on the internet (02:04)
How to Gain Confidence to Ask a Girl Out
Question: how do you get a girl if you don't have any confidence in your self much? Do you think some one can find some body if they have not much confidence in themselves? How can you gain confidence to ask her out? This is an easy one - if you're willing to take our advice... (02:00)
Tips on Asking Questions to a Doctor
Gina shares what Michelle, the founder of Empowher, share about asking a doctor questions. (02:41)
With its great innovative models of n-series mobile phones which are fully loaded with hi-tech features along with connectivity options, Nokia has astir the mobile phone industry.
The new social-networking site thats taking the world by storm!
When you really need to know who owns the mystery number that keeps appearing on your phone (or worse yet, on your spouse's cell phone), you want to use the best reverse phone search service possible. This review shows why Reverse Phone Detective could be that service.
The nexus one is a smartphone from google which uses the Android open source mobile operating system
Be it contract mobile phones or pay as you go mobile phones or any other phone deal, the most important thing for the potential buyer is making online comparison and grabbing the best deal. A deal that can go in perfect sync with the needs of its buyer.
Technological development has led to many positive changes, which have widely been accepted. Among all these, the one instrument which can be clearly said to have made communication effective and fun is a Mobile. Introduction of so many brands in the market has led to the commencement of various offers, among which clearance mobile phones has grabbed the maximum eyeballs.
The demand of a mobile phone can never go down because it has not only occupied a special place in every one 's life but has facilitated an interaction to be error free. Those days have gone when this instrument was tagged high but today with the introduction of cheap mobiles, the number of consumers has increased rapidly.
It is unfair if every time you are sitting at home and you are worried if you are safe or not. This does not have to be so as there are many easy solutions like hiring the services of a security firm or installing a security system. It allows you to breathe easily and enjoy within the comfort of your home.
With family members spread across the country and around the world, it becomes more and more important to make use of the Internet to keep everyone up to date with family reunion plans. Coordinating schedules, procuring funds to pay for the event and final details can be taken care of...
The advent of broadband, high speed Internet access in millions of homes has introduced the use of video over those networks as a mainstream digital reality and led to the creation of phenomena such as YouTube. It has also baffled the television and movie corporate powers, who can't decide whether...
The Internet has accelerated a long-established cultural trend: more and more people are getting their news from electronic sources rather than the newspaper. Television and radio have made steady inroads; the trend really accelerated with as cable TV crept into a majority of American households and all those specialty channels...
Linux is an "open source" operating system originally developed by a engineer from Finland named Linus Torvalds. Linux was released under an early version of the GNU "General Public License", or GPL, by which any user that wanted to work with Linux was free to do so. Though...
Podcasts have become audio and video versions of blogging. They are delivered by all manner of amateurs and professional organizations (usually news services) and are delivered through a multiplicity of channels. Podcasts are audio or video "bites" that address a particular topic or provide a small segment of entertainment or...
Internet usage for employee recruitment has come about through a few channels. In an effort to retain customer (and advertiser) loyalty, newspapers have developed online versions that include the "help wanted" ads which have long been their bread and butter. At the same time, sites like Monster and Career Builder...
Those of us that have been watching the development of the computer industry for some years may remember that one of the alternatives to massive supercomputers developed ten or fifteen years ago was the use of large numbers of smaller computers working in tandem. The concept involves using a "massively...
This story is one of those too-good-to-be-true tales that actually might be real. The acronym VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol; that's the technology for making telephone calls over the web. Several companies have introduced services that utilize this technological capacity and they are making a commercial success of...
Add new Comment
Comments on this article
0