ask.com has changed

Ask.com, which I have always ranked ask.com as one of my top 3 search engines, has undergone some restructuring. Read Webware’s take on the changes.

As you type in your search terms, a list of search suggestions comes up. You can turn this feature off if you don’t like it.

A search for the French revolution turned up Ask Q&A with 777 questions about the revolution. A list of related searches included a timeline, summaries, cause and effects and more. Tabs across the top take you to Web sites, Images, News and a variety of other options like Recipes, which may not apply.

On the Image page you can further select by size, file type and b&w or colour images. It would have been beneficial to have a creative commons search feature on the image search page.

On the news page you can choose to search within categories of news such as politics, business or sports. You can also narrow your sources to certain geographical areas.

I do miss the expand your search/narrow your search features that helped kids think critically about search terms. So I’m not sure if I entirely like the new features. They seem less kid-friendly to me.