Ask.com is combining search with a live community via its iPhone application that lets users ask questions and notifies them as soon as an answer is posted.

The Q&A service was previously only available to Ask.com Web site users. The application is available for free download in Apple?s App Store.

?Millions of people already come to Ask.com with their questions every day,? said Jason Rupp, director of product management at Ask.com, San Francisco. ?Instead of having to wait by their computer in order to get an answer, Ask.com users can now pose a question on their mobile app and receive notification as soon as an answer is posted.

?The number of questions posed on Ask.com has steadily increased since our Q&A beta launch in July and the new iPhone app will help us do an even better job of getting questions and answers to users faster,? she said.

Ask.com is an online brand for questions and answers.

Voice for mobile
Users can ask their questions without typing them out using the voice to text functionality.

The Ask for iPhone application returns the best answer from the Web in response to user questions. If the Web's best answer is not sufficient, the service leverages proprietary technology to route the question directly to a relevant Ask.com user.

Users can view open questions

?More than half of Ask smartphone users are using their mobile devices to search for information daily or more often and 65 percent of those Ask smartphone users were interested in a Q&A app for their mobile device,? Mr. Rupp said.

User questions
Ask.com users who ask questions through the site can tap the knowledge of other users via their mobile devices.

The application also offers push notifications, which include the entire answer without having to click-through other links.

Users can ask questions

The company is looking to extend the application to other platforms such as Android.

?We are informing our users about the application on our Web site, as well as using social media channels,? Mr. Rupp said.

?Later this year, the Ask for iPhone app will also allow mobile users to browse questions and answers within their immediate surroundings, route location-specific questions to nearby Ask.com members and review recent questions asked about nearby points of interest,? he said.