Ask.com has expanded its European presence with the launch of Ask France, Ask Italy and Ask Netherlands, Search Engine Watch writes. Following the launch of Ask U.K. in 2001, Ask Espana in 2005 and Ask Deutschland beta in 2006, the new sites extend Ask.com's reach into the rapidly growing European search market. According to the announcement, the beta sites use Ask.com's proprietary algorithmic search technology, which ranks results based on popularity within topic communities on the web rather than by link popularity.

Ask France, Italia and Nederland include features such as the Ask.com Toolbox, which provides customizable homepage shortcuts to tools, including Image Search and MyStuff, a personalized search service for saving, sharing and organizing search results.

The beta sites will also feature Binoculars, a preview tool that allows searchers to preview websites by mousing over the binoculars icon within their search results; Family Filter, a feature protecting users from viewing unwanted adult content; and Page Translation, initially only available on Ask France, which translates English-language pages into French.