Ask.com Launches Redesigned Search

Ask.com on Tuesday launched its redesigned website, complete with new search technology, a three-panel design, and other new features aimed at differentiating itself from its competition.

Technology called 'Morph' provides the basis for most searches. Through algorithmic content-matching and ranking technology, Morph takes the results from several different sources and transforms the page layout to accommodate it.

Another feature called ExpertRank further sorts the results by giving prominence to the most authoritative sources in an effort to help the user find what they need faster.

Ask calls the new design "Ask3D," said to represent the three dimensions of search. The three-panel interface contains "query expression" in the left, "results" in the center, and "content" in the right panel.

The "Query Expression" panel serves as the control panel for the search, allowing the user to change aspects of the search, and offer suggestions for narrowing or expanding the search.

The "Results" panel is self-explanatory, and includes the company's "Binoculars" preview feature. Finally, the "content" panel provides other related information such as images, news items, blogs, weather, time, videos and music clips.

"Ask3D reduces the amount of hunting and pecking it takes for people to find what they need. We do this by delivering the right information, from the deepest range of content, all on one clean and simple page," Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone said. "With Ask3D, we are taking a leap towards the future of search."

Other new features include a more deeply personalized webpage, more multimedia preview capabilities from the search results page, location-based results, and new video search capabilities, with technology culled from Blinkx.