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Ask Jeeves and Google Sign $100 Million Three-Year Deal

Ask Jeeves selects Google Sponsored Links Program; projects revenue from paid listings to double by Q4

Emeryville, Calif. -- July 18, 2002 -- Ask Jeeves Web Properties, a division of Ask Jeeves®, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASKJ), today announced it selected the Google Sponsored Links Program, a paid listings advertising service for use on Ask Jeeves' search sites. Under the agreement, Ask Jeeves and Google will share the more than $100 million in estimated revenue to be generated from Google's advertisers on Ask Jeeves' search sites over three years. Google's sponsored links service will complement Ask Jeeves' own suite of advertising products, including its proprietary paid listings product, branded ad units and paid inclusion products. Beginning in September 2002, Google's sponsored links will replace the third-party paid listings currently featured on Ask Jeeves search sites. Ask Jeeves also announced today second quarter financial results and confirmed the Company's fourth quarter pro-forma profitability target.

Ask Jeeves (Ask.com®), the second largest pure search engine according to Nielsen//NetRatings, will use Google's sponsored links service to offer advertiser listings ranked by relevancy and a bidding system from a rapidly growing base of advertisers. In addition, the agreement will also enable Ask Jeeves to syndicate the Google Sponsored Links Program along with Ask Jeeves' Teoma search technology, proprietary paid listings product, branded ad units and paid inclusion products. For Google, the agreement extends its reach to Ask Jeeves' millions of unique users, a valuable audience that overlaps with Google's unique users by less than 15 percent (Nielsen//NetRatings).

"By utilizing Google's sponsored links service alongside our Teoma search technology, we will deliver a great search experience to millions of users on Ask.com and Teoma.com," said Skip Battle, chief executive officer of Ask Jeeves, Inc. "The deal with Google also improves our returns substantially. We expect our revenue from paid listings on Ask Jeeves and Teoma.com to more than double from Q3 to Q4 and beyond as a result of this agreement."

"Our paid placement business has already increased by 40 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter. This was due primarily to the addition of our own proprietary Premier Listings product and continued strong growth in our Branded Response product," said Steve Berkowitz, president of Ask Jeeves Web Properties. "As we continue to increase the percentage of revenue from paid placement we'll increase the predictability of our revenue streams and cash flow. This should have a very positive impact on our financial projections and allow us to make additional investments in our search technology and site experience," added Berkowitz.

"This agreement will put our advertisers in front of millions of new users while also offering them new audience characteristics distinct to Ask Jeeves," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and CEO. "Google and Ask Jeeves have a shared vision of making it easy and efficient for people to search on the Web. By working in partnership, we will help grow the overall search market."

Battle added, "We're delighted with our relationship with Google. We've worked effectively with them in the development of this deal and expect to continue a good working relationship on the paid listings front."

Upon implementation in September 2002, Google's advertisers will be prominently featured in the "Sponsored Links" portion of the Ask Jeeves and Teoma.com results pages.

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