Ask Answering the Wrong Question, Sometimes?? Options

[rustybrick]

Got a message from someone with an area code of 206, so I wanted to make sure not to call too early.

Over to Ask, like I normally do for this.

http://www.ask.com/web?q=206+area+code

Then clicked on "Local Time"

http://www.ask.com/web?q=time+in+Washington

Answer was correct, but then I wanted to refresh the page and I hit the "go" button in the answer. hey, wait a sec, that is "washington, dc" which is on the east coast, not the west coast (Washington state).

[Respree]

Its like "turkey." Did you mean the bird or the country?

i.e. did you mean the state or the city?

Without a frame of reference, it's hard to tell what you meant.

If you tried 'time in seattle', it could have figured out that was in Washington state.

[rustybrick]

It had reference, from my 206 area code. Why can't it string it along?

I didn't ask it to convert my 206 query into "time in Washington" it did it, itself.

[Respree]

Oh, I see. I misunderstood the path you'd taken.

Yes, there appears to be a disconnect between the original query (reference to 206) and the dropdown.

After it give you what it thinks is the correct time, I took the additional drop down to mean Asks way of saying 'or did you mean' "Washington, DC or Washington, England, or ...", as an alternative, just in case its guess was wrong.

[JohnMu]

Oh, but it was using "206" --- code 206: "Partial Content" according to RFC2616 - so the answer you are getting is partially correct, just like you wanted :mrgreen:

[randfish]

Hey, 206! Was it me you wanted to call, Barry?

[rustybrick]

Rand, no - but I knew you were in that area.

[Wit]

I thought all US phone numbers started with 555....


(hehe J/K, sorry about that)