As IAC/InterActive’s search engine prepares to make debuts in Europe in 2006, the Ask team has implemented some new features for searchers.
A quartet of query helpers from the Ask search team have been activated in the Ask Jeeves search engine. Hope Hackett blogged about the changes to Ask.
First up is the Page Translation feature. Ask has not had a lot of foreign-language pages in its index, Hackett said. But with site launches pending in Europe, they have been adding more of that content to the index. A “Translate this page” link will appear alongside search results eligible for translation.
Dictionary Smart Answers has digested the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition, to better respond to [define] queries, like ‘define intuitive‘. Clicking on the Definitions of intuitive link listed next to the American Heritage Dictionary text brings up the reference page about that word.
Ask has likewise implemented Roget’s Thesaurus to help find synonyms for words. Enter the query ‘synonym for fast‘ to get a list of synonyms and the link to the thesaurus reference page for the word.
Last comes the audio pronunciations. Hackett wrote that “where possible, we offer direct access to audio pronunciations as well as word meanings…Look for the sound icon.” Click the icon and the site pronounces the word.
All interesting tools, but we have to ask one question: Why are the images in the blog post (for Page Translation and Audio Pronunciation) being served from Yahoo’s Flickr instead of an Ask Jeeves site?
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
