MobileAsk Mobile Search Launches

Ask Mobile Search Launches


Ask.com Mobile Home Page

Ask.com has launched a mobile search product at
m.ask.com
or mobile.ask.com. Ask Mobile
is optimized for mobile devices and uses
Skweezer throughout to improve
readability and download speed on your mobile device.

Navigating Ask Mobile was
a pleasure on
my Treo.
You click on links, navigate to them, but especially nice is the ability to
type in a number that corresponds to the link you want to navigate to.

For
example, pressing 1 takes me to web search. If I search on [football]
as an example, you can then see the smart answers at the top of the results and
then five results listed out.


Ask.com Mobile Search Results

Typing 1 while on that page will direct me to the
first result, through Skweezer. Press 9 will give me more options and pressing 0
will take me home.

My main complaint that this was
expected in
“sometime in 2005” and it is already 10 months into 2006.

Here is a break down of features:

– Web Search:
— Explained above
— Stores recent searches
— Many smart answers enabled
— Squeezer enabled
— Zoom features (search refinements)
— 5 results per page

– Directions:
— Driving Directions
— Walking Directions
— List View
— Turn by turn view (nice when walking)
— Maps (explained later)
— Find nearby feature
— Sent to phone via SMS

– Maps
— Street Views
— Aerial Views (very cool for mobile – example)
Ask Mobile Maps
— Zoom in or out
— Sent to phone via SMS
— Find nearby feature

– Images
— 3 image results per page

– Business Listings
— similar to maps and directions find nearby business feature

– Weather
— Not full weather functionality but the most important
— Type weather 10010 or your zip code into web search and you get a weather
smart answer

– Bloglines link
– Area Codes
– Currency Conversion
– Horoscope
– Time Zones

Here is the official release from Ask.com

Search On The Go With New Ask Mobile Search

Ask Mobile Optimizes Search for Mobile Devices

NEW YORK, October 12, 2006 – Ask.com®, a wholly-owned business of IAC/InterActiveCorp
(NASDAQ: IACI) and the fastest growing search engine on the Web, today
introduced Ask Mobile (http://mobile.ask.com), a new service for searching the
Web from mobile devices. Designed to minimize keystrokes, increase
navigability on small displays and accelerate page loads, Ask Mobile offers a
special interface and search tools to help searchers find what they are
looking for faster. The announcement was made at DigitalLife, a consumer event
in New York City dedicated to educating consumers on what the digital
lifestyle means in every aspect of life – at work, home and play.

“Mobile is an increasingly important access point for searchers,” said Jim
Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. “The new Ask Mobile makes it easy for users of
Web-enabled cell phones, PDAs and other mobile devices to take advantage of
the world-class relevance and industry-touted search tools offered by Ask.com.”

Key Features

Special Interface for Mobile Users
Ask Mobile offers links to key search categories directly from the home page,
making it easier to navigate to relevant results. The design saves significant
keystrokes for many searches; for example, looking for the weather in the
94114 zip code requires 50 percent fewer keystrokes on Ask Mobile compared to
mobile products offered by other major search engines. Fewer keystrokes is an
extremely important concept when considering the difficulty of typing on
mobile devices and the absence of full-sized keyboards.

“Ask Mobile is designed specifically for search on mobile devices, instead
of shoehorning a PC interface into a mobile product,” said Doug Leeds, vice
president of product management for Ask.com. “Extensive testing showed that,
by eliminating the search box from the home page and instead providing links
to key search services, users were more successful in getting to what they
were looking for, significantly increasing their satisfaction.”

Ask Mobile utilizes Skweezer technology that “skweezes” Web pages to
present content in a format that is easier to view and navigate on small
displays and increases download speed. With the Skweezer technology, Ask
Mobile allows more access to Web content by allowing pages to load that would
otherwise be too memory-intensive for most mobile devices.

Search Services
Powered by Ask.com’s proprietary ExpertRank algorithmic search technology, Ask
Mobile provides users with highly-relevant search results, bringing
authoritative sites within their topic community to the top of the results
page, rather than simply ranking sites by their link popularity on the Web at
large.

Ask Mobile provides direct access to important mobile search categories on
the home page, including Web Search, Directions, Images, Business Listings,
Maps, Weather, Bloglines™, Area Codes, Currency Conversion, Horoscope and Time
Zones. Additional services, such as sport scores and movie times, will follow
the initial rollout.

To see how Ask Mobile works, consider the following examples:

– Web: Try “Eisenhower” or “Angel Island.” Note Recent Search and ability
to Narrow or Expand queries.
– Directions: Try “94114 & 94607.” Note ability to select List or Turn-by-Turn
options, Satellite or Aerial views and Send to Phone.

– Images: Try “polar bears” or “Jessica Alba.”
– Business Listings: Try “Starbucks & 10036” or “Chinese & 94114.” Note
autodial directly from listings, Street and Aerial views of maps with overlaid
location pins for matching listings and Zoom and Navigation buttons.

– Maps: Try “San Francisco.” Note the unique ability to select Driving
Direction, as well as Walking Directions, navigation features and option to
send maps and directions to mobile devices.

– Weather: Try “10036.”
– Bloglines: Quick access to the Mobile version of Bloglines, the world’s
number one online RSS aggregator.
– Area Codes: Try “Miami, Fla.”
– Currency Conversion: Try “100 EUR & RUB.”
– Horoscopes: Try “Leo.”
– Time Zones: Try “Monaco.”

Instinctive Search Tools
Ask.com has been touted by press and industry pundits for its search tools and
features, which take search beyond the traditional “blue links”, offering
searchers a better way to find what they are looking for. Some of these
features and tools are available on Ask Mobile, including Smart Answers, which
provide shortcuts to answers and tools at the top of the search results page
and Zoom Related Search, which provides conceptually-related suggestions to
Narrow or Expand queries.

Availability
Ask Mobile is available immediately at http://mobile.ask.com. Users accessing
www.ask.com from mobile devices will be automatically recognized and
redirected to Ask Mobile.

About Ask.com
A leading search engine on the Web, Ask.com combines world-class search
technology with one-of-a-kind search tools to help people get what they are
looking for faster. Ask.com sites include Ask.com US (http://www.Ask.com),
Ask.com Deutschland, Ask.com Espana, Ask.com France, Ask.com Italia, Ask.com
Japan, Ask.com Nederlands and Ask.com UK. Additionally, Ask.com syndicates its
search technology and advertising units to a network of affiliate partners.
Ask.com is a division of IAC Search & Media, a wholly-owned business of IAC/InterActiveCorp
(NASDAQ: IACI). Ask.com b-roll footage is available at www.thenewsmarket.com/ask.

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