Ask Launches RSS Smart Answers

Ask has expanded their Smart Answers program with the release of RSS Smart Answers. "What is it," you ask? From the Ask Blog:

Now, when you conduct a web search for many of your favorite blogs, RSS feeds, or news sites, it's likely that at the top of the web results list, you'll find the last three posts from that site’s feed. New items appear very quickly after the publisher hits the publish key. Of course, you'll also find a direct link to the blog or news source to see the entire post.

Very interesting indeed! Ask states that the initial list was selected based on the most popular feeds chosen by their users in Bloglines and that over time they will be adding a more comprehensive list. "The possibilities for RSS Smart Answers are endless and go way beyond news and blog feeds," they say.

Barry Schwartz's Search Engine Roundatbale was one of the blogs selected. If you search "seroundtable" you will see three of the most recent posts at the top of the search results. "Search Engine Watch" is also included. Nothing for Search Engine Guide yet but I am sure it is only a matter of time.

If you recall, Ask's Smart Answers program provides key information at the top of the page for many search queries, such as a music group or famous person, and contains a brief bit of information and links to more information. It seems as if RSS Smart Answers functions in a similar fashion but works off popular feeds.