WebProNews

Ask.com has tapped Anchor Intelligence and will use its ClearMark software to score all of its paid search clicks.

The goal of Ask's partnership with Anchor Intelligence is to protect its advertisers and partners from paying for fraudulent clicks.

"Through our partnership with Anchor Intelligence, Ask.com can further apply these fundamental priorities to the experience of our advertising customers," said Mark Stockford, CIO, Ask.com

"This move demonstrates Ask.com's commitment to providing advertisers across the marketplace with the most valuable, impactful, and reliable advertising traffic available online."

The ClearMark software classifies traffic according to quality and works to identify machines that have been compromised and used for malicious activity.

Earlier this year Ask partnered with Symantec to provide users ratings about the safety of sites before they visit.

Ask also partnered with NASCAR to become the official search engine for the sport. Ask has plans to launch about a dozen more vertical search engines this year that will also focus on sports and other topics.

Ask currently has 4 percent of the search market according to Hitwise.