Ask.com

In a move to compete against Google, search engine Ask.com on Monday launched a new version of its site. The latest iteration claims significant boosts in relevance, user interface, and speed.

Ask.com is betting on proprietary technologies like DADS, DAFS and AnswerFarm to break new ground in semantic search, Web extraction, and ranking. The company said Monday's announcement marks the first of several new search-technology innovations it will introduce in the coming months.

Ask.com has bought a stable of Internet reference sites that includes Dictionary.com in its latest effort to distinguish itself from online search leader Google Inc. and other much larger rivals.

Besides Dictionary.com, Ask is picking up Thesaurus.com and Reference.com in its acquisition of Lexico Publishing Group LLC. Terms of the deal, set to be announced Thursday, aren't being disclosed.