Tami Mandeville, Ask Jeeves, Inc.510/985-7951 or
[email protected]
Jeff Brunings, USWeb/CKS, 408/986-6721 or
[email protected]
Ask Jeeves Extends Reach through Strategic Alliance with USWeb/CKS
World's Largest Internet Professional Services Firm to Build Competence to Deliver the Ask Jeeves' Corporate Question Answering Service
Emeryville, Calif. - August 17, 1999 - Ask Jeeves, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASKJ), a provider of natural-language question answering services on the Web for consumers and companies, today announced a strategic partnership with USWeb/CKS (Nasdaq: USWB), the leading Internet professional services firm. USWeb/CKS is the first consulting firm to build an expertise for delivering the Ask Jeeves' Corporate Question Answering Service.
"By combining USWeb/CKS' deep client roster and extensive expertise in Internet technology with our intuitive approach to Web interaction, we can make great strides toward our common goal of making it easier for companies to maximize the lifetime value of their customers on the Web," said Rob Wrubel, president and CEO of Ask Jeeves. "The partnership enables us to capitalize on the experience of USWeb/CKS to quickly proliferate the Corporate Question Answering Service to as many companies as possible."
Under the terms of the alliance, Ask Jeeves will license its Corporate Question Answering Service directly to customers. USWeb/CKS will then implement and maintain the Corporate Question Answering Service, which includes knowledge bases containing questions and related answer links that point to existing Web content. The two companies have agreed to work together to:
� Build within USWeb/CKS an Ask Jeeves discipline that specializes in the implementation and maintenance of the Ask Jeeves Corporate Question Answering Service. Ask Jeeves expects to train more than 50 USWeb/CKS professionals before year-end on the expertise required to deliver the service.
� Jointly pursue the development of regional Ask Jeeves Solution Centers. The first such center, located in the Portland, Oregon office of USWeb/CKS, is operational today. The purpose of these centers is to develop a best practice model for the implementation and maintenance of the Ask Jeeves Corporate Question Answering Service.
� Commit the appropriate resources and funds to promote the Ask Jeeves Corporate Question Answering Service.
� Engage USWeb/CKS and Ask Jeeves sales teams to actively promote partnership services to respective client bases.
"Our relationship with Ask Jeeves strengthens the portfolio of services USWeb/CKS offers for helping clients implement successful e-commerce strategies," said Robert Shaw, CEO of USWeb/CKS. "We are pleased to combine our expertise in helping companies transform their business in the digital economy with Ask Jeeves' question answering services to help create the new standard for online customer interactions"
Companies currently utilizing the Ask Jeeves' Corporate Question Answering Service include Alta Vista, BellSouth, Compaq, Dell Computers, Datek Online, Micron, Office Depot, Oxygen Media, Toshiba and WebTV. By utilizing the same natural-language question answering approach found on Ask.com, companies can use the Corporate Question Answering Service to answer virtually all of their customer questions, ranging from general questions to specific pre-sales and support questions about a product or service.
About Ask Jeeves, Inc.
Ask Jeeves provides natural-language question answering services for consumers and companies on the Web. The Ask Jeeves Question Answering Services allow users to ask questions in plain English and receive responses pointing to relevant answers on the Web. The Consumer Question Answering Service at Ask.com makes it easier for people to quickly find relevant information, products and services online. The Corporate Question Answering Service, which provides question answering services for company Web sites, helps companies manage customer interactions for electronic commerce and support. Both services leverage a set of proprietary technologies to create knowledge bases containing questions and answers that become more intelligent with use and can be integrated together to create a question answering network. For more information visit http://www.ask.com or call 510.985.7400.
About USWeb/CKS
USWeb/CKS (Nasdaq: USWB) transforms businesses in the digital economy and creates sustainable market leadership for its clients. As a leading Internet professional services firm, USWeb/CKS has created a new standard for success in the digital economy - time-to-value. Time-to-value means USWeb/CKS applies its insight, experience and scale to deliver breakthrough results quickly. The Company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with more than 3,000 professionals in over 60 locations worldwide. Additional information about USWeb/CKS is available at uswebcks.com or by calling 415-284-7070.
This news release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that such results or events discussed in these statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Ask Jeeves with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically its recent S-1 registration statement which identify important risk factors such as the Company's limited operating history, history of losses and anticipation of continued losses, potential volatility of quarterly operating results, and other risks that are contained in the Company's reports and documents filed from time to time with the SEC.
Ask Jeeves, Ask Jeeves for Kids and Ask.com are registered trademarks of Ask Jeeves, Inc.