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Ask City provides local information
Internet firm IAC has launched Ask City, a local search product that will allow users to look for information relevant to their area.The new service incorporates Ask.com's popular sites such as Citysearch and InsiderPages and is available for all cities in the US, with a special focus on the top 50 markets. It has been in development for most of this year and will apparently be taken international in 2007.
Although the engine will not offer advertising, it is expected to boost traffic to Ask.com itself, where ad revenue is expected to increase. It will also mean Ask poses more of a threat to the giants of the industry, Google and Yahoo.
Ask.com has enjoyed strong growth in recent months, with year-on-year search figures increasing by 25 per cent during October. This translates to more than 168 million searches over the period, or 2.8 per cent of the market share.
It is still lagging far behind Google, however, which enjoyed 23 per cent year-on-year growth in October and a total of more than three billion searches.
But it is innovations such as Ask City that are widening the playing field and ensuring that consumers have an option when it comes to search.
Other leaders in the market include Microsoft's Live Search.
Search Marketing news posted on 05 December 2006
