Ask.com makes improvements

Ask.com has, in the past, come up with search innovations, but it has done little to help the company's business. It remains in fourth place in a market dominated by Google. But Ask.com is not giving up. On Monday, it introduced a revamped version of its search engine that will deliver results not only from the web, but also from so-called "structured" sources of data in certain categories like entertainment, health and jobs. The results are intended to deliver faster answers to certain queries.

"We have rebuilt the Ask site from the ground up," said Jim Safka, the chief executive of Ask.com. The site includes an index of various question-and-answer sites from around the web, including Yahoo Answers and WikiAnswers, and returns results for some queries posed as questions. Safka said the new Ask.com returns more relevant results for common queries than in the past. Will it make a difference and boost the search site? Only time will tell.

For more about Ask.com's new face:
- see this bits.blogs.nytimes.com article