ASK to Launch an Anonymous Search Tool

While Google keeps on getting more and more hear for insisting on keeping surfer’s information infinitely (in Internet terms at least), ASK seems to have gotten the picture and announced today a new search tool which will forget about you altogether, Sort of like “10 Second Tom” from 50 First Dates…

The new tool, called AskEraser will offer users complete control over their privacy when searching for information: With AskEraser, people can ensure that their search history will not be retained by Ask.com. Searchers will have easy access to AskEraser and can change their privacy preference at any time. Once selected, searchers’ privacy settings will be clearly indicated on search results pages so they always know the privacy status of their searches.

ASK’s notion that anonymous user data is as good as non-anonymous one is great and, in my opinion, correct. The only reason a company would like to connect a person with its searches over time is for reasons beyond their needs such as profiling other “scary” uses. I think that this announcement on ASK’s behalf is a real breakthrough and I hope that others will choose to add such feature.