Open Search Directory

Ask.com - A Feature Loaded Alternative Search Engine

URL:
http://www.ask.com

Info:
Alexa | Whois

Submitted by:
AOS

Ask.com is one of the web’s most popular alternative search engines and an alternative to the major search engine players such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

The search results are rather impressive and compete on a level playing field with major search engines.  However, Ask.com does provide some advanced and unique features only found on this site.

The following paragraphs detail some of the unique features and my impressions of the interface.

Results

While Ask.com does return some impressive search results, it still has a tough time competing with other major search engines such as Google or Yahoo!.

So, instead of trying to beat the big guys with index size, they seem to have taken a different route by offering additional and rather useful features.

One of those features is a preview option, displayed by a small binocular icon next to each result.  By hovering your mouse over this little icons, a small preview pop-up will display, similar to the Snap.com preview feature we use on this site.

This pop-up also has an additional feature by means of a Compete traffic snapshot that will tell you the unique visitors to each site.

Another useful feature of the search results is a filter menu on the left hand side that will allow you to narrow, expand, or discover other search queries similar to the one you’re currently looking at.

This is a feature that is common among other search engines such as Clusty.com as well as other alternative search engines.

Search Types

As with most search engines today, Ask.com offers specialized search results for images, blogs, video, and news among others.  There is however one feature that I’d like to highlight and that’s the “city” feature.

The “City” option in Ask.com, is a nice little feature that allows users to search local stores and services.  By typing in a search query, such as a business or keyword - then providing Ask.com with the location you’re looking for - Ask.com will return the local search results along with an integrated map with the location of your results.

Other search engines such as Google and Yahoo! do offer a localized search engine, however Ask.com is one of the first to provide these results front and center.

Ask Eraser

One the big topics in the search world today is privacy.  There’s a lot of controversy around the amount of information search engines are currently tracking and storing in their database. Many browsers such as Google’s Chrome, Internet Explorer 8, and soon-to-be added features of FireFox 3.

Ask.com has incorporated this trend it into their search engine by a feature called “ask eraser”.

By enabling the Ask Eraser feature, your browsing history, search terms, and cookies will be erased from Ask’s databases.  They do however have a small disclaimer that certain information is stored on 3rd party databases such as advertisers.

Conclusion

Ask.com is a good, solid alternative search engines to the major players.  It offers many features and privacy options you won’t find on other, more popular search engines.  So if you’re looking for a change of pace, give Ask.com a try.