Ask Jeeves Introduces Zoom and Web Answers
May 26 2005 - 7:55AM
PR Newswire (US)
Ask Jeeves Introduces Zoom and Web Answers New Products Help
Searchers Find More Relevant Search Results Faster OAKLAND, Calif.,
May 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ask Jeeves, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASKJ)
today introduced two new search products on Ask Jeeves(R)
(http://www.ask.com/), which increase relevance and guide users to
find the information they need faster: "Zoom," a next-generation
related-search tool that gives users suggestions to narrow or
expand their searches; and "Web Answers," which provides direct
answers harvested in real time from the billions of Web pages in
the Ask Jeeves index. "Today's launches significantly advance the
cause of some of our most popular search features," said Jim
Lanzone, senior vice president of search properties. "Zoom and Web
Answers are not bells and whistles; they are important innovations
on some of our core search technologies, which will help our users
find what they need faster than with other search engines." Zoom
and Web Answers are immediately available on Ask Jeeves. Zoom:
Concept Navigation Zoom is a new concept navigation tool that
offers suggestions to narrow and refine your search ("zooming in"),
or expand your search ("zooming out") to explore new ideas. It can
even identify specific names related to your original search. Zoom
is visually represented on the Ask Jeeves results page with
suggestions that are categorized on the right side of the page into
Narrow Your Search, Expand Your Search and Related Names. Zoom
takes advantage of, and builds on, the unique clustering ability of
the company's Teoma search technology, which breaks the Web into
topic communities. Zoom examines the relationships between these
communities to identify and present conceptually-related topics to
the searcher. For example, with the query "Beatles," zooming in
with Narrow Your Search returns "Beatles Lyrics," "Beatles
History," "Beatles and Biographies" and "Beatles Wallpaper."
Alternatively, by zooming out with Expand Your Search, suggestions
include "Rolling Stones," "Led Zeppelin," "Beach Boys,"
"Woodstock," and even "1960's" to help users clarify what they are
looking for. Meanwhile, Related Names is able to isolate "John
Lennon," "Ringo Starr," "Paul McCartney" and "George Harrison" as
relevant suggestions. Thanks to the Teoma methodology, Zoom is able
to identify concepts, and thereby recommend conceptually-related
suggestions that would not be available from current clustering
technologies. "Searchers don't want to spend time to formulate and
enter involved search terms. As a result, queries are frequently
short or ambiguous," said Daniel Read, vice president of product
management at Ask Jeeves. "Zoom brings recommended queries to the
user-suggestions that allow searches to be refined, or associated
topics explored, with a click of a button. Zoom guides users to
exactly what they are looking for fast." Try: -- "Raleigh" --
"prozac" -- "pink floyd" -- "hot air balloon" -- "brooklyn bridge"
-- "Beatles" Web Answers: Direct Answers from Billions of Web Pages
Ask Jeeves helped pioneer the concept of directly answering users'
search queries with its Smart Search technology, which mines
structured data for direct answers. Web Answers extends Ask Jeeves'
direct-answering abilities by mining unstructured data in real
time. The new capability increases relevance by finding answers
hidden within regular Web pages. Thus, the potential sources for
direct answers now include the billions of pages in the Ask Jeeves
search index. "Web Answers allows Ask Jeeves to answer far more
queries than would be possible using editors or structured
databases," continued Read. "By mining unstructured Web data, we
can tap the billions of pages in our index for answers." Web
Answers is uniquely presented to the user as the top organic search
result on the Ask Jeeves results page. The result is labeled as a
"Web Answer," and the "answer" is highlighted in context within the
snippit or description of the Web page. A user can then link
through to the site to view the source. When multiple answers are
found, users are able to view an expanded list of answers, as
defined by the Web at-large. In user testing, Ask Jeeves found that
Web Answers improved the click-through rate on the top search
result by over 200%. Web Answers is triggered by questions, phrases
or keywords. Try: -- "who was the leader of the pilgrims" --
"Deadliest snake" -- "who invented television" -- "largest lake in
the world" -- "what is data mining" About Ask Jeeves, Inc. As the
6th largest global web property (ComScore Media Metrix, March
2005), Ask Jeeves Inc. delivers world-class information retrieval
products through a diverse portfolio of Web sites, portals and
downloadable applications. Ask Jeeves' search and search-based
portal brands include: Ask Jeeves (Ask.com, Ask.co.uk and
es.Ask.com), the Ask Jeeves Japan joint venture (Ask.jp), Ask
Jeeves for Kids (AJKids.com), Bloglines (bloglines.com), Excite
(excite.com), iWon (iwon.com), My Way (myway.com) and Fun Web
Products (funwebproducts.com). Additionally, Ask Jeeves owns the
differentiated search technology Teoma, as well as natural language
processing, portal and ad- serving technologies. Ask Jeeves
generates revenue from advertisers seeking to reach the company's
broad-based online audience. Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves has been a
publicly traded company on the Nasdaq National Market since July
1999. Its headquarters are located in Oakland, California, with
offices throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and
Asia. For more information, visit http://www.ask.com/ or call
510-985-7400. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
All statements regarding the future are forward-looking statements,
including the prediction that Zoom and Web Answers will help our
users find what they need faster than with other search engines.
The forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to
numerous assumptions, risks and other uncertainties and are based
on limited information available to Ask Jeeves at this time, which
is subject to change. Ask Jeeves' actual results in the future may
differ materially from management's current expectations. Although
management's expectations and the information known or available to
management may change after the date of this release, Ask Jeeves
undertakes no obligation to revise or update the guidance or other
statements made above. The lack of any revision or update is not
meant to imply continued affirmation of guidance or other
forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute
to actual results differing from forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to the risks described under the
caption "Risk Factors" in Ask Jeeves most recent Quarterly Report
on Form 10-Q and in subsequent filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. NOTE: Ask Jeeves, AJinteractive, Ask.com,
Teoma, MyJeeves, My Way, iWon, Excite and Bloglines are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Ask Jeeves, Inc. DATASOURCE: Ask
Jeeves, Inc. CONTACT: Patrick Crisp of Ask Jeeves, Inc,
+1-510-985-7696, or ; or Kerry Coulter of Dotted Line
Communications, +1-415-440-2709, or , for Ask Jeeves, Inc Web site:
http://www.ask.com/
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