Search service seeking broader presence

Search service Teoma on Tuesday launched a companion search bar for Microsoft's Internet Explorer in a play for a wider share of the search market dominated by Google. Emeryville, Calif.-based Teoma relaunched in April after Ask Jeeves, a natural-language search site, acquired the company last fall. Since the relaunch, Ask Jeeves has adopted a minimalist motif similar to that used by Teoma and competitors Google and Yahoo to help consumers access information faster and to appeal to a more savvy audience.

If widely adopted, the new search bar will give Ask Jeeves' Teoma a broader presence. Google has long offered a similar tool bar but with a larger number of features. Web surfers can download the Teoma tool bar free as a companion to Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher, which would then display Teoma's search bar from any Web page. People can search for terms, look up words in a dictionary and e-mail Web pages to friends. Teoma's search bar works only for people using Windows 98, NT, 2000, Me or XP.