Ask.com lately introduced the beta versions of Ask.com France, Ask.com Italia and Ask.com Nederland, representing the company’s most recent expansions in Western Europe. The beta search sites are available in each respective country at www.ask.com and can also be accessed directly from any country at: www.fr.ask.com, www.it.ask.com, and www.nl.ask.com.
Following the launch of Ask U.K. in 2001, Ask Espana in 2005 and Ask Deutschland beta in 2006, the new sites extend Ask.com’s reach into the rapidly growing European search market.
The unique search experience at Ask.com has resulted in the largest U.S. percentage growth among the major search engines for 2005, and we look forward to bringing that experience to more European users, said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask.com. With the help of Ask.com, Internet users in France, Italy and the Netherlands will now be able to get what they are looking for faster.
According to the announcement, the beta sites use Ask.com’s proprietary algorithmic search technology, which ranks results based on popularity within topic communities on the web rather than by link popularity. This approach requires additional computations beyond that of other ranking methodologies that simply evaluate the popularity of pages on the Web at large.
In addition, Ask France, Italia and Nederland include innovative features such as the Ask.com Toolbox, which provides customizable homepage shortcuts to tools including Image Search and MyStuff, the first personalized search service for saving, sharing, and organizing search results.
The new sites represent Ask.com’s commitment to establishing its brand throughout Europe. The company plans to power its brand, advanced technology, search tools, and partnerships with leading local content providers to expand its market share.
"The European search market is growing rapidly and, with differentiated search technology and a single-minded focus on meeting users’ search needs, Ask.com is uniquely positioned to take advantage of that growth," said Adrian Cox, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Ask.com Europe.
"We expect that the user adoption of our newly-launched interface, search tools and technologies, coupled with the Ask.com features that our users have come to love, will help Ask.com become a driving force in search across Europe."
The beta sites will also feature Binoculars, a preview tool that allows searchers to preview Web sites by simply mousing over the binoculars icon within their search results; Family Filter, a feature protecting users from viewing unwanted adult content; and Page Translation initially only available on Ask France, which translates English-language pages into French.