The site I did my evaluation on is Ask.com.  The sites URL is http://ask.com , previously known as AskJeeves till Jeeves was voted off to retirement. I was surprised to see how many search services are used. I went to about us and found the search tools which are Blogs & Feeds, Image Search, Local Search, Maps& Directions, News Search, Shopping Search, Weather Search, Dictionary Search, Conversions, Famous People Search, Stock Search, Movie Search, Smart Search. They also listed other tools and tips which include Binoculars Site Preview, My Stuff, Search toolbar, Desktop Search, RSS Feeds, Basic Site Preferences, Advanced Web Search, and the White Pages Search. I found some of these things interesting for example the Binoculars. After you do a query you will see the binoculars in with your search results, if you place the curser over the binoculars you can view the page before you actually visit the site in question.  Then there is the Advanced Web Search when you use this feature it asks you questions to narrow down the search field you are looking for. The weather tab has you enter your zip code and pulls up weather related information for that zip code, also at the top of the page it displayes the weather for that aera.  The Currency conversion tab allows you to put in a dollar amount then you have a large selection of many differant currencies to choose from. It then converts from one to the other it will dispay the information you asked for at the top of the page and will also provide you with other helpful sites on the topic.

            Ask.com uses ExpertRank algorithm which provides Ask.com with relevent search results. Ask.com isn't looking for the most popular sites they want the ones the experts use that will provide you with the best up to date information avalable. Ask.com also uses IAC (InterActiveCorp) which is a search and meadia service that delivers world class information using portfolio web sites, portalsa, and downloadable applications. The IAC Search & Media is a buisness of IAC/InterActiveCorp. The site itself describes itself to be the most intuitive, relevant and personalized search destination on the web.

            When looking at the page it is a white background with a plain red boarder on the top of the page. On the right site of the page are the search tools with an edit button to rearrange the list and a next button to see the rest of the list. Next to the list is a small picture to go with the name. There is a large variety of choices there is Web, Images News, Maps & Directions, Local, Weather, Encyclopedia, Shopping, Desktop, Blogs & Feeds, Advanced Search, Bloglines, Currency, Conversion, Dictionary, Mobile Content, Movies, My Stuff, Stocks, Thesaurus, Unit Conversion, White Pages. Centered in the page is the Ask logo which is a red oval with the word Ask in white lettering. Under the Logo is the query bar along with the search button, followed by the downloadable IE toolbar so you can take the search engines with you.  Under that is the links for About Us-Advertise-Ask for Kids.

            I also took a look at Ask for Kids and found it very interesting the page itself is blue. Centered on the top page is the site name with the Ask in logo, for written in white cursive and kids written in yellow block lettering.  Under that in the center of the page is a yellow bar with four children on top of it, and in the bar is the query and search bars under that you will find a question “Where’s Jeeves?” where children can find out what happened to Jeeves, followed by a News Resources link and a Fun and Games link.  On the right side of the page is a pile of books with Study Help Areas which are as follows Dictionary, Thesaurus, Almanac, Biography, Science, Clip Art, Astronomy, World Atlas, math Help and History.  I feel the virtual environment is very kid friendly.  I asked my children to give the site a try and they loved it. They said that they were able to find things faster than with Google.com.  I also wish I had found it sooner for it gave me helpful hints as to ways to help the children with there math homework.

            I have always used http://google.com and after using http://Ask.com I have found that Ask skips a few steps to finding the information I was looking for. For instance when the children and I were looking up things for a project they were working on I could just go to the Encyclopedia Search tool and put the information in I was looking for where at Google I had to key in Encyclopedia and then key my search Ask.com lets you skip that step which saves time.  Seeing my son caught a 49 inch Striped Bass on May 29, 2006 I thought I would look up what the largest Bass  caught in Massachusetts was. The results of my search was as follows I found many interesting article on the largest Striper caught there were no sponsored sites available in this search to find the same article in Google took two steps more then with Ask.com. My next search was on Hummingbirds I used the advanced search engine right of the bat and found a recipe to make hummingbird food immediately, again no sponsored sites.

            The Advanced search areas were very helpful to me, I found it easy to use and made my search go a lot smoother then usual.While I was doing my searches on Ask I was also doing the same searches on Google I found that I like them both you receive the same information but with ask you skip at least one step because they already have the categories there for you to choose from.