Ask Jeeves Launches Database of 300 Million High-Quality Question-and-Answer Pairs

LONDON - Delivering the Best Answers to User Questions

The internet search engine Ask Jeeves has today unveiled its proprietary database of 300 million question-and-answer pairs for consumers in the United Kingdom and United States.

Using core search technology launched in October 2008, Ask Jeeves achieved this industry milestone of 300 million high-quality Q&A pairs by crawling and indexing questions and answers from numerous and diversified sources across the web.

The search engine then filtered out insignificant and less meaningful answer formats using its semantic search technology advancements in clustering, rephrasing, and answer relevance. The result is a Q&A database that is fine-tuned to give consumers the best answer, the first time, every time through streamlined, localised, concise results.

For example, when asked the question “how do I train a puppy?” Ask Jeeves will return in-depth Q&A pairs from a series of diverse and multiple authoritative sources across the web - giving consumers a selection of options they can use to take action. Ask Jeeves’ unique Q&A results are also injected and blended into standard web search results pages.

Cesar Mascaraque, managing director of Ask Jeeves Europe, said: “We are thrilled to announce the launch of 300 million Q&A pairings on Ask Jeeves. This new Q&A database builds on our strategy to provide a unique and differentiated search experience in the UK.

“In recent months we have focused hard on improving the areas of the site we know our users care most about - the speed, the look, and the relevancy of the search results. I strongly believe Ask Jeeves is best placed to lead the industry in semantic search technology.

“Consumers ask questions three times more on Ask Jeeves than on any other search engine and this new Q&A database will enable us to further deliver the best answer, the first time, every time.”

Notes to Editors:

Ask Jeeves is the 10th largest Internet brand in the UK, reaching 39% of the Internet population [source ComScore]. Ask Jeeves in the UK has 15 million unique users per month, while Ask.com in the US has 75 million unique users per month.

Source: Ask Jeeves

For further information, please contact: Anna Skerten, PR Manager, anna.skerten at ask.com, +44(0)7990-634586