Can Ask.com Take A Bite Out Of Google?

CBS Tech Analyst Larry Magid Reviews Ask's New Look

(CBS)  In the "Narrow Your Search" section are clear links to a map of Paris, Paris tourism, population of Paris, Paris city map, facts about Paris and other useful information. The middle column has the usual links and the right column has custom tailed material including images of the city of lights, encyclopedia information about the city and even the current weather in Paris, France.

Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone said that the new Ask, which they are calling Ask3D, "reduces the amount of hunting and pecking it takes for people to find what they need. We do this by delivering the right information, from the deepest range of content, all on one clean and simple page."

Referring to the competition, he said that "On average, it takes people four queries to find what they are searching for online. This is because search engines have forced people to wade through endless lists of links, and refine query after query, to find the right information."

Ask.com has also redesigned its home page. It's clean and simple but not quite as reductionist as Google's. There are links to searching the web, images, news and blogs plus the City link that searches local content for cities around the U.S. using data from Ask's sister company Citysearch.

In addition to the default interface, Ask will allow users to apply "skins" to customize the look and feel. You can, for example, choose a theme of flowers or an image of the western sky. Personally I think that's a bit of a waste of time but a lot of people do enjoy the user choices that come with "skin" software.

And in case you haven't seen Ask's ubiquitous algorithm commercials the company, according to Vice President Doug Leeds, is trying to distinguish itself from other search engines by emphasizing its technology.

"We take a very different approach to the way we organize (prioritize) information on the web," Leeds explains. "Instead of merely counting up links to a website and using that popularity rank to determine where they show up on a search results page, we actually categorize the web into communities of experts and then we rate the experts links to different sites higher. So, you're a little going to get richer results from smaller sites that you may have never heard of."

Google's algorithm is said to rank sites based on the importance of sites that link to them.

Leeds cites the difference between how Ask and Google locate sites when you search "fantasy baseball." Google's top hits are from Yahoo's fantasy sports and ESPN, because those are very popular sites with a lot of links. Ask's top sites are fantasybaseballcafe.com and rotoworld.com because, says Leeds, "those are the sites the
sites the experts visit."

While Ask.com isn't likely to unseat the number one search engine, it is worth using when you're looking for a more organized set of results.

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A syndicated technology columnist for over two decades, Larry Magid serves as on air Technology Analyst for CBS Radio News. His technology reports can be heard several times a week on the CBS Radio Network. Magid is the author of several books including "The Little PC Book."