Since it’s Throwback Thursday, we decided to take it WAY back today. Were you able to figure out who this US president was?

James Garfield!

Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, with the second shortest term at only 200 days, March 4, 1881 - September 19, 1881. He was the second of four presidents to ever be assassinated.

Garfield served the Union during the Civil War, and entered politics shortly after as a Republican. During his political career Garfield advocated a bi-metal monetary system, agricultural technology, an educated electorate, and civil rights for African Americans. 

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

Today’s photo challenge of the day on Instagram was taken right from our Ask.com homepage question of the day. Do you know which is the only human bone without joints?

It’s the hyoid bone, a horseshoe shaped bone that sits in the neck between the chin and thyroid cartilage  Like we said, it’s the only bone in the human body without any joints! Instead, it connects to other bones with muscles and ligaments. 

It helps with tongue movement and swallowing. The hyoid bone provides attachment to the muscles of the floor of the mouth and the tongue above, the larynx below, and the epiglottis and pharynx behind.

The name is derived from the Greek word hyoeides meaning “shaped like the letter upsilon” (υ).

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

I recently received a note from a student at Rutgers University, and I liked it so much that (with Bjorn’s permission) I thought I’d answer him here.

“I noticed that your business all began with Rutgers University. My name is Bjorn Svendsen, I will be a junior this fall at Rutgers University. At the same time, I will be starting my own startup, the Pulse, which will aim to become the central location for events on campus. I wanted to send you an email to ask you if you would have any advice for me starting out at Rutgers, and would like to congratulate you on the success you’ve made out of your Rutgers origins.”

Hi Bjorn,

You’re right; at its inception, Ask Jeeves was located in a dorm room on the Rutgers campus. In the ensuing 17 years, Ask has grown and evolved, was acquired in 2005 by IAC, and now provides answers to more than 100 million monthly users all over the world. The path to our success hasn’t always been easy, but every step has been worthwhile. I could spend all day talking about the many ways, but instead I’ll distill it down to the top three lessons we’ve learned. 

1. Be open to what your users tell you.

Whether positive or negative, the users of your products will always let you know how you’re doing. Since these are the people you’re building for, take all feedback to heart. Additionally, keep the channels of communication open all the time, and respond to let your users know that you’re listening.

2. Keep an eye on the competitive landscape.

Every industry has competition, but no industry moves as quickly as the tech sector. The era of app-building has led to an even faster rate of innovation and product ideas hitting the market. If you stay too much inside your own walls, you’ll miss out not only on new ideas, but how users are responding to them. The innovation train won’t wait for innovators to get on board, so stand at the front of the line with your ticket in hand. 

3. Don’t get stuck in your ways. Innovate!

Many tech companies have come and gone since the tech sector really took off in the mid-1990’s. The companies still around all have one thing largely in common: they’re not doing the same thing they were doing when they started up. Apple is a great example – it started with personal computers, and then became so innovative in other segments that the word “computer” was dropped from the company name altogether. The first startup I worked for 14 years ago began in the online community content space, and now exists as a provider of moderation services – and there were a few other stops along the way. Ask began as a search engine, and now fills a niche as the most trafficked Q&A site on the web. And we’re not stopping there, either. Stay tuned!

4. Your people are your most important asset.

While your users are the lifeline of your products and company, your employees are the catalyst between product ideas and delivery to the market. Ask knows this, and invests heavily in employee satisfaction with unlimited paid vacation time, a fully stocked kitchen, lots of opportunities for career advancement and company recognition of individual success are just a few of the ways Ask values its employees. Ask has a multitude of employees who have been with the company for more than five years, and some longer than 10 or even 15. These are the people who love to innovate and are always eager to work on the next big thing, and Ask maintains a place where they can do this easily.

I really appreciated your note, Bjorn, and it takes me back to my own college days working on a startup with some other people. Best wishes to you and your team from all of us here at Ask!

-          - Eric McKirdy, Worldwide Customer Care and Technical Support Manager, Ask.com

The question of the day on Instagram was for TechTuesday, “When was the first Blackberry (RIM at the time) model released?”

It was fourteen years ago in 1996! The first model was a simple two-way pager with a thumb keypad and thumbwheel for scrolling the monochrome text display. Within a year, the devices were in use by fewer than 400k people and expected two-way wireless messaging services to attract 51 million users by 2002.

They provided email and WAP capabilities with limited HTML access provided by third party software. 

Needless to say, Blackberries have come a long way, and remain competitive in the smartphone market.

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

Yesterday’s photo challenge came straight from the Ask homepage’s question of the day! So if you’re a super Ask user, this one should have been no problem. Can you guess what type of car it is? The hint was that it is foreign. 

If you guessed Lamborghini…you’re correct! 

Manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini’s mechanical mind got into tractor manufacturing in 1948, when he founded Lamborghini Trattori, which quickly became an important manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the midst of Italy’s post-war economic reform. He later went on to produce air conditioners until he eventually founded Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini S.p.A. in 1963 with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with Ferrari.

The company’s first models were released in the mid-1960s and were noted for their refinement, power and comfort. Lamborghini gained wide acclaim in 1966 for the Miura sports coupé, which established rear mid-engine, rear wheel drive as the standard layout for high-performance cars of the era.

Today the Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars is part of Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Lamborghini’s production facility and headquarters are located in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy. 

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

A few days ago under particularly gorgeous skies, a few dozen intrepid Ask staffers split into groups to take part in a scavenger hunt around downtown Oakland, with the focus being to explore more of our great city. Twenty-four clues awaited each team, and not all were that easy!

Clue number 17 had an unexpected payoff. The clue itself took us to Bittersweet, a chocolate and coffee cafe located on Broadway in the heart of downtown. But beyond the coffee and chocolate, the most delicious discovery was chancing to meet Bittersweet’s owner – none other than Penny Finnie, who was the chief creative officer at Ask Jeeves 20 years ago. In fact, Penny is credited with coming up with the concept of Jeeves, himself!

We could’ve stuck around and visited with Penny the rest of the afternoon, but she had work to do and we had more clues to uncover. The few minutes we had with her were great, though, and all of us plan to go back for another visit soon.

Eric McKirdy, Worldwide Customer Care and Technical Support Manager

Today’s photo challenge of the day was, “Can you guess which movie this is? Better question is…are you seeing it this weekend?”

Of course it’s Star Trek: Into Darkness! Are you ready for the twelfth installment in the Star Trek franchise, and the sequel to 2009’s Star Trek? J. J. Abrams directed this latest episode, and anyone who’s an Abrams fan is excited to see his take on the classic. Not to mention, maybe it’s a preview into what the upcoming Star Wars movies will be.

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

Yesterday, Ask employees joined the Fishing Derby for Special Kids at Lake Temescal in Oakland, organized by the East Bay Regional Park District for the seventh year in a row!

The EBPD hosts 150 kids with special needs from local elementary schools for a day of fishing, arts and crafts, face painting and games.

Ask employees buddied up with the kids and had an awesome day! Can’t wait until next year!!

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com 

It’s another Throwback Thursday photo challenge here on the Ask Instagram. The question today was, “Can you guess who this swingin’ sixties band we’ve been dreamin’ about is?”

Hopefully you picked up on the California Dreamin’ referenced, and guessed The Mamas and The Papas.

The group was together from 1965-168, and briefly reunited in 1971. They released five studio albums, and seventeen singles, six of which made it to the top ten charts. Worldwide, the sold close to 40 million records! Did you know that they were originally called the Magic Circle?

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

Our photo of the day challenge came from the question of the day over on the ask.com homepage, “What was the first fully computer animated feature film?”

Did the above close up photo give you a hint??

It was Toy Story! Some of you may remember when it came out in 1995, and were hooked, anxiously awaiting Toy Story 2 and 3. It was actually Pixar’s first full feature length film. Pixar, who had been producing short animated films to promote their computers, was approached by Disney to produce a computer-animated feature after the success of the short Tin Toy, which is told from the perspective of a toy. Even though Pixar’s technology has grown leaps and bounds, I think it’s safe to say that Toy Story withstands the test of time.

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com