Ask.com Further Attempts To Revolutionize Search

Ask.com announced last week that it is launching a new search algorithm called Edison. Edison combines several smart concepts towards the goal of more relevant search results. It uses:

Teoma – Ask’s current search technology, created by Professor Apostolos Gerasoulis at Rutgers in 2000, purchased by Ask on 9/11/2001 (yeah, seriously). Teoma determines the subject related to web pages, and count link rank based on those subjects. For example, if a page determined to be in the subject of “baseball”, pages it links to will rank higher on terms related to baseball. It allows Ask to create great subject-based features like its Binoculars.
Direct Hit – Acquired by Ask in 2000, uses clicks to determine search rank. User clicks are tracked, and search results that get more clicks are determined to be more relevant, thus refining the search engine the more it is used.
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Original post by Nathan Weinberg