November 2, 2007 5:15 AM PDT
Who programs the Ask.com search algorithm?
Are the Ask.com programmers a bunch of beer-drinking Linux lovers with hot cousins, or is this truly what's on searchers' minds?
(Credit:
Ask.com)
Among the features added to Ask.com since its sleek makeover in June are auto suggestions that appear as you type.
A friend steered me toward this Thursday night after trying to find out if it's legal for a landlord to charge for water in New Jersey. I reminded him that you no longer have to phrase your Ask.com search in the form of a question, then tried it myself and grabbed this screenshot.
You can disable the feature, but after this laugh, I never will. Check out what happens when you type in the phrase "can you."
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
