Ask and ye shall find out…
June 3, 2010 Author: James Christie
Did you know that Google isn’t the only search engine out there?
So what recent news is there of other search engines? Well over at Ask.com there have been a few changes.
Last week, the Ask.com blog highlighted the popularity of Ask’s Related Searches function. This feature examines what keywords or phrases you have tapped in the search box and then suggests further searches.
Other search engines provide similar services but Ask.com has attempted to steal a march on its rivals by unveiling Related Questions.
Ask.com promises to answer any reasonable question that you tap into the search box and let Related Questions suggest similar queries you can pose based on your original question.
For instance, I asked Ask.com “Which came first the chicken or the egg?”
Look away now if you don’t want to know the answer – in 0.22 seconds-flat, someone called Jeeves told me that “the egg preceded the chicken” (I guess this is something to do with two non-chickens mating and their zygote’s DNA having a mutation that produced the first chicken).
All very well and good but what was even more interesting was the list of Jeeves’ suggested Related Questions on the right-hand side of the screen. One of these was the highly-philosophical evolutionary-related “Who made God?”
Another suggestion – “How long is a piece of string” showed that Jeeves seemed to realise that my question might have been a little flippant.
It’s all very diverting and if it catches on maybe it will lead to more people spending even more hours surfing the magical world of nooks, crannies and cul de sacs that we call the internet. Which will lead to even more opportunities for SEO.
Perhaps the service will become so popular that one day people will ask “Which came first: Related Searches or Related Questions?”
Anyway I’m signing off to spend more time finding out the answer to some of those riddles which have vexed men’s minds since the dawn of civilisation.
Such as “Can monkeys burp?”
Leave a comment