Ask.com gives user-controlled Privacy Option

In an effort to gain market share and provide more privacy to users, Ask.com has rolled-out user-controllable privacy option called AskEraser. Just like Google and Yahoo, Ask.com normally tracks the search query and stores it along with the user’s IP address. Enabling AskEraser will prevent Ask.com from doing this.

askeraser Doug Leeds, Senior VP for product management at Ask.com says "It works like a light switch"
. The option has been prominently placed on the Ask.com’s main page, and all other specialized search engines for finding images, videos, news, and blogs. Just a simple click will turn AskEraser on and off.

Ask.com just moved one step forward in providing some privacy to users. However, Ask.com relies on Google for displaying ads on its pages, so your queries will reach Google’s severs no matter what Ask does. I don’t think it’ll be profitable for Ask.com to remove Google ads for users who have turned on AskEraser, so I won’t blame Ask.com for this.

Mr. Leeds himself agrees that AskEraser cannot promise 100% anonymity, but it does provide great privacy to users who need it. Ask.com currently has a market share of just 4.7% in US. It will be interesting to see, if users really care about their privacy and make a switch to Ask.com.

[Via: NYT]

This post was published by on December 11, 2007

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://www.selbourne.com Selbourne Designing

    If they say “privacy” it needs to be 100% ..isn’t it? Having google ads is a loop hole for ASK in their AskEraser. Any way, it does not matter …how many people use this engine.

  • http://jeymp3.com Murali

    It is indeed a step forward by ask.com. Queries may reach Google, but the IP address of the user with AskEraser on, does it also reaches Google?

  • http://techblissonline.com Techblissonline.com

    it is high time that user care for it…google seem to be getting all over us…