[WEB4LIB] AskJeeves competitors

[Greg Notess]

	One similar approach is going to be offered by Fact City <http://www.factcity.com/>. See yesterday's article about Fact City and its offerings at <http://www.digitalmass.com/columns/internet/0119.html>. 
	As an interesting side note, the reporter mentions Fact City's answer to the question "What is the population of Boston?" It gives  574,283 with the source being the 1990 Census. I tried the same question on Ask Jeeves and got the same answer. 
	Now, if someone asks me that question at the reference desk and I offer them 1990 figures, they always ask for something more recent.  That's why I go straight to the Census Bureau's site which has population estimate at
<http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/scts/SC98T_MA-DR.txt>
which gives 555,447 for Boston city as of 7/1/98. 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + +  +    +        +                +         
+  Greg R. Notess, Reference Librarian  <http://notess.com>  
+  Montana State University     	greg at notess.com 
+  Search Engine Showdown <http://searchengineshowdown.com> 
+   Internet columnist for Online and EContent
+   Author of "Government Information on the Internet"
+            		
+ + + + + +

At 07:18 AM 1/18/00 -0800, Tomaiuolo, Nicholas (Library) wrote:
>The January/February 2000 Online Magazine ran an article by Chris Sherman
>that looked at Ask Jeeves, Electric Library, and Information Please as
>answer services.  I believe Ask Jeeves is a unique and valid answer engine,
>but I do not know of any others that approach it in terms of scope.  If you
>know of any, could you please provide me with the URLs?