Ask.com teams up with Symantec

Ask.com is currently ranked fourth in the US search market

Search firm Ask.com has teamed up with anti-virus software maker Symantec to deliver malware-vetted search results in an attempt to gain more traffic from security conscious surfers.

Ask.com said that Symantec's new Norton 360 software, due out today, will be able to actively rate the security threat of every site which appears in a user's search results, through a new toolbar.

The search company is hoping that the partnership proves attractive to the millions of Norton security software users, who might want the peace of mind of internet surfing without the risk of malware. Financial details about the partnership have not been disclosed.

Unfortunately for Ask.com, the firm is not the first to think of linking up with a security company. Last year, rival Yahoo forged a partnership with Symantec's biggest competitor, McAfee.

Ask.com is used to playing catch-up, however, as the firm continues its uphill battle to claw back market share from its biggest competitors. Ask.com is currently ranked fourth in the US search market with four per cent of searches, compared to Microsoft's 11 per cent, Yahoo's 17 per cent and Google's 63 per cent.

The partnership also seems to be well-timed, coming just three days after human error caused Google's web site warning system to flag every site on the internet as dangerous for a full 40 minutes.