Ask.com has a updated Q&A format - moves toward social search engine

With the endless streams of information offered to consumers online, two trends are clearly emerging: searchers are looking for more specific answers, and they trust word-of-web recommendations from friends on social sites. With this in mind, marketers may be interested in Ask.com's latest move, which aims to set the search portal apart with a Q&A format that lets trusted users determine the most relevant results.

Ask.com is not the only search engine that sees value in Q&A formats to give relevant, social results to discerning users. Current leaders of the search market all offer some form of social search - such as Google's Aardvark or Yahoo Answers.