This Ask.com search engine profile is continued from page one.
Ask really offers so much to the searcher that I could write an entire book on them - but I'll stick to just a few of my favorite search features here.
Ask Smart Answers
One of the best things about Ask.com is their Smart Answers feature: "Smart Answers can be found on the web results page of many searches, like for a band or famous person, and contain a brief bit of information and links to more information. You can get quick access to sports scores, movie times, weather, dictionary results, translation, conversions, and more."For example:
The thing that is really special about Smart Answers is that you're getting an instant, factual answer (no sorting through lots of extraneous results), plus, you get plenty of extra search suggestions to the right of your search query that can expand or narrow your search.Ask Blog and Feed Search
If you'd like to learn more information about a specific blog, simply type the name of the blog - no need for a complete URL. For instance: The search results show the latest posts, and you can click through for more information. One thing I wish that was part of the Blog search feature within Ask would be the opportunity to instantly add that blog to your feeds within Bloglines - and since Ask.com owns Bloglines, I would think this would be an easy function to add in.Ask Local Search
Want to find a good pizza place near you? Just try Ask Local Search. For instance, here's a search for pizza in New York City: What's interesting about Ask Local Search is you get lots of expand/narrow options for your search. Example: obviously, there's going to be a LOT of pizza places in New York City, so Ask gave me a drop-down menu with some specific neighborhoods and boroughs that I could look at.Each search result comes with tons of information: map, directions, website, price, even the hours. You can also sort your results by relevance, distance, or ratings.
Plus, you can click on any of the numbers on the interactive map and be taken instantly to the corresponding website for that destination. Just for clarity's sake, it would be nice to have the name of the destination popup when you wave your mouse over the points on the interactive map.
