Compaq, Web TV 'Ask Jeeves' For More

Ask Jeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ), the online question-answering service for companies and consumers, announced today that Compaq and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) subsidiary WebTV Networks have expanded and renewed their subscriptions to Ask Jeeves' Corporate Question Answering Service.

The service is designed to lower the cost of customer acquisition for e-commerce businesses and increase customer satisfaction, as well as provide information about customers' needs and wants.

"Our ability to connect consumers to answers helps our customers stand out in one of the most challenging areas for e-businesses: Delivering a high quality customer experience and driving e-commerce," said Frank Vaculin, senior vice president and general manager of Ask Jeeves' Corporate Question Answering Service.

Full Service

Compaq, which is currently using Ask Jeeves only on selected parts of its Web site, will now expand its implementation of Ask Jeeves' service by using it to manage online customer support for all its products. By the end of January, customers who visit Compaq's site will be able to use the service to ask questions and get answers about all of Compaq's product line, 24 hours a day.

"We view Ask Jeeves as critical to reducing support costs and enhancing customer satisfaction by enabling users to quickly and easily access product and support information any time and virtually anywhere on Compaq.com," said Steve Young, director of global customer support and knowledge services for Compaq. "Ask Jeeves also provides valuable information about the types of questions our customers are asking."

WebTV, meanwhile, has renewed its contract with Ask Jeeves for two more years. Both Compaq and WebTV are using Ask Jeeves' analysis and reporting capabilities to improve customer service, enhance its Web content and direct product development, distribution and marketing efforts.

Partnership With About.com

Ask Jeeves also announced today that it has formed a strategic distribution agreement with About.com, an online news, information and entertainment network. Under the terms of the deal , Ask Jeeves will appear on all of About.com's search results pages, and About.com will be featured on all of Ask Jeeves' question-response pages. Ask Jeeves will link directly to parts of About.com's network of topic-specific sites.

Formerly known as the Mining Company, About.com offers a network of niche vertical sites. The network has sites for more than 650 topics, each overseen by a professional guide, who points users to links about relevant content, community features and e-commerce offerings.

According to Media Metrix, About.com is the largest news, information and entertainment property on the Web.