Utilizes company's algorithmic search ranking, which clusters the web into topic areas and determines the authoritativeness of pages among their topic community.

Ask Jeeves, Inc., a provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, recently introduced the beta version of Ask Deutschland, the company's most recent expansion in Europe.

The beta site utilizes Ask Jeeves' unique algorithmic search ranking, which clusters the Web into topic areas and determines the authoritativeness of pages among their topic community. In addition, Ask Deutschland includes features such as, MeinAsk, a personalized system that enables users to save results as they search, virtually creating their own 'Personal Web'; Binoculars, a site preview tool that makes searching faster and easier; Family Filter, a feature protecting users from viewing unwanted adult content; Page Translation, which translates English-language pages into German; and Bloglines Notifier, which alerts Bloglines users of unread feeds in their account, direct from the Ask Deutschland homepage.

"Germany has the greatest number of Internet users in Europe, with more than 42 million people online, and we believe it will be a very important market for the growth of Ask search technology and the Ask brand," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO, Ask Jeeves, Inc. "By creating local sites in countries across Europe, we can offer users more relevant, localized search results."

"As the German search market grows, we believe that Ask Deutschland will be among the top players in the industry," said Malte Krueger, Business Development Director, Ask Deutschland. "Backed by Ask Jeeves search technology, the new site will offer more of what Internet users are looking for, from finding information on news, weather and entertainment to browsing the best shopping and travel sites."