OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 25 -- Ask Jeeves, Inc., a leading provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, today introduced the beta version of Ask Deutschland, the company's most recent expansion in Europe. The beta search Web site is available now at www.ask.de.

"Germany has the greatest number of Internet users in Europe, with more than 42 million people online, and we believe it will be a very important market for the growth of Ask search technology and the Ask brand," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask Jeeves, Inc. "By creating local sites in countries across Europe, we can offer users more relevant, localized search results. Ask Jeeves offers a world-class search experience to consumers, and we will leverage our differentiated approach to offer a superior search product for German Internet users."

Following the launch of Ask Espana in 2005, Ask Deutschland is the first in a number of European launches Ask Jeeves, Inc. plans for 2006. The Company plans to leverage the strength of its popular brand, its advanced technology, and partnerships with leading consumer media companies to grow share in emerging markets.

"As the German search market grows, we believe that Ask Deutschland will be among the top players in the industry," said Malte Krueger, business development director, Ask Deutschland. "Backed by Ask Jeeves search technology, the new site will offer more of what Internet users are looking for, from finding information on news, weather and entertainment to browsing the best shopping and travel sites."

The beta site utilizes Ask Jeeves' unique algorithmic search ranking, which clusters the Web into topic areas and determines the authoritativeness of pages among their topic community. This approach requires additional computations beyond that of other ranking methodologies that simply evaluate the popularity of pages on the web at large. In addition, Ask Deutschland includes innovative features such as, MeinAsk(TM), a personalized system that enables users to save results as they search, virtually creating their own "Personal Web"; Binoculars(TM), a site preview tool that makes searching faster and easier; Family Filter, a feature protecting users from viewing unwanted adult content; Page Translation, which translates English-language pages into German; and Bloglines(TM) Notifier, which alerts Bloglines users of unread feeds in their account, direct from the Ask Deutschland homepage.

About Ask Jeeves, Inc.

As the 7th largest global web property (comScore Media Metrix, November 2005), Ask Jeeves, Inc. delivers world-class information retrieval products through a diverse portfolio of Web sites, portals and downloadable applications. Ask Jeeves' search and search-based portal brands include: Ask Jeeves (Ask.com, Ask.co.uk and Ask.es), the Ask Jeeves Japan joint venture (Ask.jp), Ask Jeeves Kids (AJKids.com), Bloglines (bloglines.com), Excite (excite.com), iWon (iwon.com), My Way (myway.com) and Fun Web Products (funwebproducts.com). Additionally, Ask Jeeves owns differentiated search technology, as well as natural language processing, portal and ad-serving technologies. Ask Jeeves generates revenue from advertisers seeking to reach the company's broad-based online audience. Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves became a wholly-owned business of IAC/InterActiveCorp in July, 2005. Its headquarters are located in Oakland, California, with offices throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia.

Source: Ask

Source: Wired News