Ask revamps web search

'Ask has revamped its website to set itself apart from rivals Microsoft and Google. Now, the queries answered by Ask will feature on the main page list of results, from a wide range of sources including videos and blogs.

Ask will also allow users to fine tune the terms of their search for closer results. But Ask is not the first to have done this. In late May 2007, Ask's main competitor Google had also done something similar. Google had revamped its web search to include results from blogs and news sites in the main page itself.

The main revamp by Ask revolves around the main page and the the layout of the results that any search produces. Ask has cleaned up the main page to give it a fresh appearance and also the long list of answers, that Ask gives us when we type a query, have disappeared for good.

The new search procedure by Ask works in this way. When you enter a query on the Ask web search, the search engine takes you to another page, which is divided into three columns. he left-hand column lets searchers refine what they are looking for to make their terms either more or less specific. Ask hopes to reduce the number of times users have to enter the search terms in different styles and formats with this move.

Ask says that according to research, users need to type at least four times to get the results that they need. And Ask helps to minimise this number.

The central column contains a familiar list of results plus adverts and the tools that let people save pages or get a sneak preview of websites. The right-most column will give you results from other categories such as images, blogs, and video.