Ask Jeeves Ranks No. 1 in User Satisfaction andLoyalty; Natural Language Search Technology Wins...

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1998--Ask Jeeves, the leading provider of question-and-answer Internet navigation products and services, today announced the results of a search engine user survey that ranked Ask Jeeves first in several "User Satisfaction and Loyalty" categories, including

The survey, conducted in October by market research firm NPD Group, Inc., queried the users of 12 major search engines: Alta Vista, AOL NetFind, Ask Jeeves, Excite, GoTo, Hot Bot, InfoSeek, LookSmart, Snap, Web Crawler, and Yahoo.

Ask Jeeves' user-satisfaction results outranked the other services in four out of seven categories including overall site effectiveness, comparison to other guides, information found, and overall rating of "excellent."

"Once people try natural language search, they love it and develop a preference for it," said Robert Wrubel, president of Ask Jeeves. "The exponential growth in Ask Jeeves' traffic, and now the results of the NPD study, confirms the loyalty that people will give to a service that makes searching the Web truly efficient and easy. This is why Netscape and AltaVista have recently incorporated our technology into their search services."

Survey Results

Ask Jeeves surpassed the other search engines in the following user-satisfaction categories: -0-

--   Ask Jeeves first (50%) -- Overall rating of "excellent"

--   Ask Jeeves first (24%) -- Information found "every time"

--   Ask Jeeves first (52%) -- Ranked "much better" than other search
     engines

--   Ask Jeeves first -- Overall site effectiveness. (In this section
     users were asked to rate the search engines based upon: good
     value for time spent, comprehensive and well organized results,
     quick delivery and ease of use)

--   Ask Jeeves second (74%) -- Bookmark rate

--   Ask Jeeves second (81%) -- Stayed with same search engine after
     unsuccessful search

-0-

More About the Survey and Results

The survey was based on approximately 2000 qualified responses per site, and was conducted in the beginning of October, 1998. The survey included 12 major search engines: Alta Vista, AOL NetFind, Ask Jeeves, Excite, GoTo, HotBot, Infoseek, LookSmart, Lycos, Snap, WebCrawler and Yahoo.

Users were asked to fill out a questionnaire on a particular search engines site. The data collected was then compiled, compared and analyzed by NPD. The survey covered standard categories such as age, gender, salary and education, bookmark frequency, overall satisfaction, and frequency of finding information sought.

About Ask Jeeves

Incorporated in 1996 and based in Berkeley, California, Ask Jeeves is the leading provider of question-and-answer Web navigation products and services. In addition to licensing its technology, the company maintains two public Web sites, Ask Jeeves and Ask Jeeves for Kids. Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com), allows users to pose questions in plain English, and receive relevant answer links for each question.

The children's site, Ask Jeeves for Kids (www.ajkids.com) is the safest and easiest way for children and families to access the Internet. Ask Jeeves is the fastest and most accurate way for users of all levels to get answers online.

For more information visit http://www.ask.com/docs/about.html or call 510/649-8685. Editors please contact Colin Smith, Antenna Group, 415/977-1912 or colin@antennapr.com

About The NPD Group

The NPD Group is an international marketing information company headquartered in Port Washington, NY. Founded in 1953, the firm specializes in providing marketing information and associated computer software-based information management systems.

NPD is the ninth largest market research firm in the U.S. based upon 1997 revenues, according to the American Marketing Association's Honomichl 50. NPD has offices and affiliations in 36 countries, covering North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

NPD Online Research is a division of The NPD Group which uses World Wide Web-based technologies to conduct and deliver market research and analysis. In addition to SiteSelect, NPD Online Research also offers The NPD Online Panel, a prerecruited sample of Internet representative individuals for conducting marketing research on the Web.