Ask Looks at Search in 3D
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You won’t need 3D glasses to appreciate Ask’s new approach to search. Designed to be helpful to both casual searchers and power users, the new interface gives you less ads and more information. This article takes a closer look to see whether it’s really an improvement on what has become the norm.
We all know what the traditional approach to search is these days: search box in the center, ten blue links with some bits of information about each site (usually textual) and sponsored links at the top and along the right column. The major search engines have taken some stabs at personalization, and Google’s Universal Search is trying to bring more and different kinds of content into a standard search, mixing in images, news, and video rather than forcing you to click the appropriate links to gear your search in those directions.
Those moves look like baby steps when compared with what Ask is doing. First unveiled as the experimental Ask X with no fanfare in December 2006, Ask’s new interface gives users a three-pane layout to play with (hence the “3D”). The left pane is devoted to the search box; it’s where users can modify their query and receive suggestions to narrow, expand, and possibly search for related items. The middle pane contains what would be considered traditional results. So far, it doesn’t sound that revolutionary, right?
It’s the right pane that’s likely to make the biggest difference. As I noted above, most search engines use that pane for ads. Ask decided that the real estate is too valuable to its users to simply monetize with advertising. Instead, it pulls in content from other specialty search engines and verticals. For instance, if you do a search on a music group, you might find links to photos, music, dates and locations for the band’s upcoming performances, and so forth.
In short, Ask is taking the oldest saw on the Internet – “content is king” – and applying it to search. At least in theory, users will see more results, of more different types, than they would with the other search engines, all at the same time. Presumably, the theory is that such an assortment of results is more likely to turn up what a searcher needs. Let’s take a look to see whether more really is better.
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