Ask.com’s search engine is sharpening its focus on local results in an attempt to make a bigger splash on the World Wide Web.The long-overshadowed company is hoping to finally outshine much-larger rivals Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. with a new service meant to become a one-stop destination for information about neighborhood events, movies, restaurants and other businesses. The service, dubbed “AskCity,” is scheduled to debut Monday.
Providing a search channel that digs up phone numbers, addresses and businesses isn’t new. All the Internet’s major search engines, including Ask, have been offering variations on that theme for two years or more.
But Oakland-based Ask believes it is breaking away from the pack with its City service. Executives say results will have more information in a single panel, including richer maps, more lists of nearby attractions and related businesses.
Most of Ask’s database comes from Citysearch and five other Web sites owned by InterActiveCorp, an e-commerce conglomerate that bought Ask for $2.3 billion last year.
“It’s still not an absolutely perfect poker hand, but this is a good first step toward fusion,” Barry Diller, InterActiveCorp’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.
The service also draws upon information from 20 Web sites outside the IAC family, including Fandango for buying movie tickets and OpenTable for making restaurant reservations.”We are synthesizing the business content from multiple locations so you won’t have to pogo-stick around the Web,” said Jim Lanzone, who runs Ask for InterActiveCorp.
Ask also provides tools to mark up the maps appearing alongside the written information so a user might be able to pinpoint a designated meeting spot with a friend. Up to 10 maps can be saved at a time for future use.
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