Ask Jeeves’ Feature Offers Quick Answers

Ask Jeeves Inc. is launching a new feature designed to provide speedier answers to inquiries entered into search engines.

Ask Jeeves will display a “Web Answer” to many of the requests that its search engine processes. For instance, if someone enters “world’s largest lake” into Ask.com’s search box, the top result will include a snippet listing the Caspian Sea, including its size and location.

Ask Jeeves also is introducing a feature called Zoom, focused on determining the precise objective of a search request.