Oakland (CA) - While Google is still reeling from Internet privacy debates, Ask.com has swooped in to offer a new service that won't keep track of user searches.


Ask.com announced this week that it is launching a new tool that will allow people's online searches to be kept anonymous. That means it won't keep any record of user queries.

Ask Eraser will be part of Ask.com's new privacy settings, and it will prevent linking of search information to the user.

This new feature comes as Google recently got in hot water with the European Union over its lengthy log of search data, which showed years of data of individual users' search requests.

Complying with stricter standards than Google now follows, users not interested in Ask Eraser will have their search data stored on Ask.com for 18 months. It will then disassociate the searches with the user information. Google keeps the information two years, and is automatically renewed for another two years if the user continues to use the search engine.

Ask.com, which swings back and forth with AOL for fourth place in the search engine market, has recently pushed much stronger than it had previously, opening up a new TV advertising campaign and revamping the look of its search results.

Yahoo and Microsoft, the second and third place search engines, respectively, are also reportedly working on new privacy practices.

Never thought

Jul 20, 2007 17:28     

that I would switch from Google, but if this Ask search engine is anywhere as good as Google's, I may just end up doing so.
gm0n3y report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Privacy has its price

Jul 20, 2007 20:21     

I hate non-targeted advertising with a passion, it's why I don bother owning a TV or a radio - 1/3 of the air time on both media is just a wasted distraction, even the shows/music are rarely what I want. An environment where media bends itself to my needs is exactly what I'm looking for, and to do that it needs to know about me. A fair trade I think.
Pete Dixon report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

valid point

Jul 21, 2007 01:04     

Q very valid point you've raised there Peter Dixon, I think I agree with you- sound logic.
peter report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Yeah, keep thinking that...

Jul 21, 2007 11:46     

There's NO SUCH thing as PRIVACY. There's always someone somewhere that knows where you have been and what you're looking at and recording it. Just ask big brother (ISPs).
Zen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Ixquick.com

Jul 23, 2007 15:29     

Dear reader, None of this is new to http://ixquick.com. Although a relatively small search engine we are considered the industry leader when it comes to search Privacy. As a rule, we delete our users' IP addresses within 48 hrs and do NOT store any unique user ID cookies. This has been our practice since June 2006, when we became the world's first search engine to take this pioneering step. You can find more information on Ixquick and our privacy policy at: http://us.ixquick.com/eng/protect_privacy.html http://us.ixquick.com/eng/privacy-policy.html Please feel free to contact us for additional information. Sincerely, Robert E.G. Beens CEO Ixquick.com

Robert report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0