Ask iPhone app for location information

Ask, a search engine, is submitting a question-asking app to Apple. About a year ago, Ask returned to being a question-and-answer site. According to Ask's president, 35 to 40 percent of its search requests are question-based, compared with 6 to 9 percent for other search engines. Ask's main page revolves around individual questions, and its social question-and-answer feature, launched in July, is still being tested internally.

Ask's iPhone app will be available in the coming weeks, and anyone who downloads it will automatically sign up for the social quiz beta. You can use the keyboard to type a question into the app or ask a question in audio. It will convert speech into text and then try to show possible results as quickly as possible from an index of more than 500 million Q&A content on the Web, including other Q&A sites, frequently asked questions pages, and much more. Below the "best guess answer" is an option to "ask the community," and your question will be sent to users who have chosen to be more knowledgeable in a particular category. (Before the end of the year, you'll be able to ask your friends questions on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.)

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