Stock Search & Smart Answers

Part of the fun of working at Ask.com is discovering many of the Smart Answers that can be real time and click savers. Here are a few I discovered last week.

Like many web engines, entering a ticker symbol and/or company name will give you the latest stock price and some other investment related info. In some cases, you'll need to begin your search with the term "stocks" or stock quote. For example: Stocks AMR,   Ticker Symbol Sirius, CSCO, Stock Quote Pepsico. Our Smart Answer results contain data from both Marketwatch.com (now a part of Dow Jones) and Big Charts. This search feature also works on Ask.com UK.

OK, that's cool but Ask.com offers more. What we think is extra cool is that certain queries will place up-to-the-minute (15 minute delayed info) fast facts about a public company directly on a results page, above the results, in the Smart Answer space. As I said before, a real time saver for the business researcher or investor.

Here are a few cases that illustrate this point:
  * Market Capitalization KO (Coca-Cola)
  * Outstanding Shares Fedex
  * Price Earnings Ratio GE
  * Nike stock

Btw, many of these techniques also work for companies not listed on U.S. exchanges.

For example: Outstanding Shares BOS (Body Shop, Traded on the London Stock Exchange) and P/E Ratio BOOT

Here's an example of two companies each with the same ticker symbol. Stock price BOOT offers the latest price for Lacrosse Footwear traded on the NASDAQ.  However, you'll also find a link below the Lacrosse Footwear info asking you   if you're interested in a quote for BOOT (Boots Group) that trades on the London Stock Exchange. Finally, entering Market Summary into an Ask.com search box will provide current numbers for the Dow Jones Industrial Index, NASDAQ composite index, and the S&P 500.

See you tomorrow at WebSearchU!

Gary Price
Ask.com Director of Online Information Resources