Ask.com hopes to persuade consumers that are fond of discount Web sites to bring their bargain hunts to its search engine.
Ask is rolling out Ask Deals, a service that will let visitors search for online coupons and bargains that it indexes from several dozen popular coupon Web sites, retail Web sites, message boards and blogs.
Ask, which is owned by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, will be integrating the deals with regular search results on Ask.com -- denoting deals with special icons -- and making them available on a separate page devoted to bargain hunting, Ask.com/deals.
Ask Networks President Scott Garell said the company decided to focus on bargains because so many people use coupons. According to coupon-processing company Inmar Inc., use of electronic discounts and coupons more than doubled in the first half of 2009 from the same period last year, as overall coupon use rose 23 percent. Electronic coupons now account for more than 3 percent of all coupons used, up from about 2 percent last year.
