Ask.com adds mobile apps to its search results
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - You are apt to discover more useful apps for your smartphone or tablet computer at Ask.com beginning Tuesday.
At least that is the thinking behind a licensing agreement that Ask's search engine has forged with Silicon Valley startup Quixey, which has spent the past three years refining a technology to analyse the services offered through millions of applications designed for iPhones, iPads, Android gadgets, Windows devices and BlackBerrys.
Results from Quixey's database will now appear among the answers that Ask delivers to questions posed on its search engine. The apps results primarily will be featured in a new section of Ask that is scheduled to debut at 8pm ET Tuesday (0100 GMT Friday).
In some cases, though, an app might appear in the main results, even when a request is not explicitly seeking a mobile application. For instance, someone looking for good places to take a hike might see an app for locating trails listed among the results. Or a query for the television series "30 Rock" may highlight apps from Netflix or Hulu that offer entire episodes instead of just listing Web links with information about the show.
