4. Check that forms are accessible Usually there is prompt text next to each item in a form. For example, a contact form might have prompt text ‘name’, ‘e-mail’, and ‘comments’, each one next to a box where your site users will enter information. When you click on prompt text, does a flashing cursor appear in box next to that text? If not, your forms are inaccessible.

5. Check that text can be resized In Internet Explorer (used by over 90% of Internet users) go to View > Font size > Largest. Does text on your website increase in size? If not, then your website is inaccessible to web users with poor visibility.

6. Check your website in Lynx browser The Lynx browser is a text-only browser and does not support many of features that other browsers such as Internet Explorer have. You can check how your site looks in this browser with Lynx Viewer, available at http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html. If your website makes sense and can be navigated through Lynx browser, then it will be fulfilling many of web accessibility guidelines.

7. Check that you can access all areas of your website without use of a mouse Can you navigate through your website using just tab, shift-tab and return? If not, then neither can keyboard- and voice-only users.

8. Check that there is a site map Can you find a site map? If not, then neither can people who are lost on your website.

9. Check your web pages with an automated program Two programs available for free on Internet are Bobby (http://bobby.watchfire.com) and Wave (http://www.wave.webaim.org). They are unable to provide you with all information that you need, as some checks must be done by humans, but they can tell you some of areas where your site might be going wrong.

10. Hire an expert Hire a web accessibility professional to test your website.

During my interview with Jim Lanzone, we discussed Ask's current standing and where he expects prominent search engine to appear within next few years. Obviously Jim could not provide specifics on technology they plan on including; however, I was able to garner some idea of company's vision:

Jim gave serious kudos to Google and Yahoo! for creating relationships with ‘hidden web'; vast information resources once missed by average search engine such as Library of Congress, US Supreme Court Audio, NPR, etc.. According to Jim these types of relationships are definitely going to play a role in future development at Ask. The problem is time, they plan on making some inroads this year but it will take a while before Ask can match kind of advances that Yahoo or Google have made. This is especially true since Index Express was phased out; initially this was to be model for uncovering hidden web.

AskJeeves is very focused on providing a quality user experience. This is evidenced strongly by Ask's current clean interface and Smart Search ideology that “search experience is as important as results themselves”. From what I could gather, Ask's goal is to minimize successful search experience to one click.

A fresher index was noted which indicates a strong desire to begin spidering web sites more frequently in near future. Jim did not elaborate on this, however, I speculate that this means isolating web sites that are updated regularly and spidering them more often.

Currently News section of AskJeeves is populated using Moreover; a popular and reliable news syndication resource. At moment, Ask only minimally controls results of its Moreover results with a basic algorithm. This is a major difference between AskJeeves and its search competitors Google and Yahoo!; Ask is only engine without its own news spider! When asked, Jim noted that advances in Ask's news asset will begin to take place in second quarter of this year.

What else? At this point in interview I encountered familiar and completely understandable ‘wall of vague'; to quote Jim Lanzone, AskJeeves plans to “move into different areas of search and apply our search engines to new areas of web and make improvements to methodologies that determine relevance of web.” Well said!