Never let it be said that Ask.com search doesn't look outside the box for inspiration. When our User Experience team started thinking about how to improve Ask Web Search, they sought inspiration from a number of sources. Here's one:

Source: The National Gallery of Victoria

triptych (n.): A work consisting of three painted or carved panels that are hinged together.

How did this centuries-old presentation format inform our brand new search format? Each piece of a triptych is built so that they can be reviewed separately, but they combine to create a richer experience. We've done the same with Ask3D.

It's a three panel interface where each panel represents a different dimension of information related to your search. Put them together and you get what we think is the best search experience available: Better results--more of them above the fold, and from more and different sources--with every results page.

Let's take a panel-by-panel tour.

Left Panel

AKA the Ask3D "control panel." Scroll all you want, the search box will always stay in the top left (where, incidentally, it opens up valuable space for more search results above-the-fold).

Start typing a query-you'll automatically receive predictive search suggestions that save you keystrokes. Don't like predictive text? Disable it with a single click:

Just below that, you'll find Ask.com's famous Zoom Related Search?so you can quickly Narrow or Expand your search queries without once touching the keyboard.

Center Panel

AKA the "results" panel. Sure, it looks familiar, but you'll find a couple surprises compared to other engines:

-At the top of your results, the #1-ranked Smart Answer (structured data result) for your query.

-Fewer ads: Ask.com remains the major search engine with the fewest number of advertisements--8 per page maximum, compared to Google's & Yahoo!'s 11 per page (and that's not even counting Yahoo's Yahoo hidden "Paid Inclusion" ads, called, where sites pay per click to receive traffic from "editorial" results).

Right Panel

AKA the "content" panel. Here's where search gets fun. Here's where you find valuable content related to your search, including:

- Images
- Video
- Blogs
- News
- Weather
- Music

The content in the right rail will change according to your search query to give you the most appropriate content available. That's because Ask3D not only considers relevant signals within the content, but also bases its ranking on previous aggregate user behavior for your query, according to what other searchers found most valuable.

Essentially, it's performing dozens of simultaneous searches in one!

And it's all above the fold.

We'll drill down more on these features in subsequent posts. In the meantime,   try a search or two on the new Ask.com and   see just what it is we're so proud of.

--The Ask.com Team