Ask.com announces plans for Moses Lake

Mayor anticipates additional jobs through parent company IAC

MOSES LAKE — The butler may have left the building, but Ask.com has big plans for Moses Lake.

The company, formerly AskJeeves.com, announced its plans for a new data center Wednesday morning.

Ask.com will house its new center in the Titan complex, located at 4949 Randolph Road.

Ask.com representative Denise Welch said moving into an existing facility is more cost-efficient. She also pointed to the available space and power in the building, and minimal customization requirements.

The eco-friendly server facility enables Ask.com to support its growing query volume and provide additional computing power for processor-intensive search service, including the new Ask3D, which combines images, video and music and traditional Web links on a single search results page.

The Titan facility has zero carbon emissions and utilizes renewable hydropower and a low-energy cooling design.

"Moses Lake is an ideal location due to its cooperative business environment; access to low cost, renewable power and superior network connectivity," said Ask.com Chief Technology Officer Chuck Geiger. "With these inherent benefits, Eastern Washington is the right choice for Ask.com as we expand our computing infrastructure to support our growth and expanded search services."

Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey said he had the opportunity earlier in the year to meet with executives from Ask.com and its parent company, IAC, who informed him the data center would not employ a great number of personnel.

"However, there were some additional prospects through IAC which might bring additional companies to the area," Covey said. "Being made aware of that, I feel there will be a number of jobs opening up through the Ask.com data center and their associated companies."

Covey said he was glad to see Ask.com select Moses Lake as the site for their center.

"We have seen the development of data centers in the Quincy area over the past couple of years, and for Ask.com to choose Moses Lake I think is certainly going to be an asset to the community," he said.

Welch said the facility is being built out, and expected to be operational later in the year.

"We will be hiring in Moses Lake with minimal hires in the beginning as we implement a significant amount of remote management capabilities," she said. "Ask does not break out employee number by individual locations."

Cost of the investment was not available, Welch said.