February 27, 2006
Quentin Reade
Search engine Ask has dropped Jeeves the butler and completely revamped its site in a bid to become ?an everyday search engine?.
The new look website features a new cleaner look and new tools, such as a dictionary function, weather reports, maps, currency conversion, a blog search and the ability to personalise the page.
Jeeves has been the face of the search engine since it launched in the United States ten years ago, and in the UK for the past six years. However, Ask said it felt people still viewed the search engine as a question and answer service, and did not realise all the other functions the site performs.
Tony Macklin, vice president of European Product Management at Ask, told Web User the new Ask site will also feature a service that lets people save websites they have visited in a personal account, making it easier to revisit sites you have seen.
www.ask.comclicking on the binoculars icon gives a preview of websites found in search requests.