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SES San Jose co-chair Chris Sherman took Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone on a little question and answer journey for the morning conference keynote. (Our on-scene WebProNews staff has passed along this latest news from SES San Jose 2007. If you can't be there, you need to be here with WebProNews this week, for videos and reports.)

Lanzone ranged across several topics this morning in his keynote discussion with Sherman. The Ask CEO tried to keep a promise of not saying 3D all the time, a reference to the recent update of Ask to its current Ask3D configuration.

"We hit on this three-panel interface that maps to the three stages of search," he said of the new Ask. Options for narrowing or expanding the search appear on the left, content in the center, and options for the discovery of deeper content on the right.

It's an approach that gets visitors the right answer in the right place, at the right time, said Lanzone. They want to focus more on providing better results than worrying about beating Google in search.

In discussing the search behemoth, Lanzone noted how Ask has been a Google partner. "It's got to be almost a love-hate relationship with them," he said of the prospect of anyone partnering with Google.

More of Lanzone's 40 minute chat may be heard at WebmasterRadio.fm.