Today’s Throwback Thursday photo challenge of the day was sort of hard, but that’s why it’s called…a challenge!

We asked, “When was this picture taken?” And the hint we gave was that it was related to your laptop.

The answer is 1944. This is a picture of Colossus, the first electric digital  computer that was all programmable. The Colossus computers were first used by British intelligence during WWII to decode encrypted telegraphic messages between the German High Command and their scattered European occupancy. Something tells us, this didn’t come with a mouse and keyboard…

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

The question today was, “Can you guess whose famous comedian’s mother this is?”

If you said, Ben Stiller, then you’d be correct! 

Ann Meara was funny long before Ben was born. Her and Ben’s father Jerry Stiller (George Costanza’s father on Seinfeld!) were part of the original improv group, The Compass Players, which later went on to become The Second City. In fact, their comedy duo, Stiller and Meara often appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Since then, Meara has gone on to play many memorable roles on television. Oh, and she raised Zoolander!

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

You may have heard that Ask has been growing – literally, with awesome new employees (like this one, and more) and a new floor of office space to house our expanding family. So what better time to re-evaluate what makes our office tick each and every work day? 

We recently polled our employees about work preferences and habits – what makes our work areas great, not so great, and our daily structure of going to meetings vs. time doing work. Turns out, we’re doing a lot of both.

We found that Ask spends 45 percent of our time in some type of meeting (almost as much as focus time at 47.2 percent), which typically either occurs in a conference room or at a co-worker’s desk. So the majority of our fellow co-workers expressed that they wanted more meeting rooms, collaboration space, and alternative workspaces. Overall, it was clear that we were looking for more places to meet up outside the often disruptive and not-very-private personal desk.

Doing this survey made us curious – do all other Americans work the same way? So we conducted a study with Harris Interactive, which was released today, and the findings gave us a glimpse at what sparks or kills workplace productivity nationwide. The study found that despite 61 percent of respondents claiming that noisy co-workers are the biggest distractions in offices, over one quarter still prefer an “open room” or “newsroom” setting.

Interestingly, our office said the same. And now we’re considering a newsroom setting for our new office design plans for when we officially expand our real estate to the third floor of our building.

We believe every good company listens to its employees to foster good working habits. What makes your work day better?

Learn more about the Harris findings here and a few more interesting workplace habits after the jump!

And be sure to watch out for a fun Instagram contest we’ll be announcing in a couple of weeks, that includes taking a pic of your own personal workspace for a chance to win a few snazzy items for your desk. 

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

Me Time vs. We Time

A vast majority (86%) of U.S. office workers are most productive when they work alone.

• But those who live in the West (94%) are more likely to say this than those who live in the South (81%).
• Over half (52%) agree they are most productive when they work closely with their co-workers.

Cube vs. Open Style Seating

27% prefer to work in a newsroom setting office (e.g., call center style, open room seating).

• And it looks like married people like their space. Those who are single/never married (37%) are more likely to say this than those who are married (21%).

So Many Distractions!

What bugs American office workers the most?

• Nearly two thirds (61%) say noisy coworkers are the biggest distractions in offices.
• Almost one in five (19%) blame social events (e.g., lunches, birthday celebrations) are the biggest distractions in offices.

• 19% say water cooler talk are the biggest distractions in offices.
• 17% say co-workers’ messy workspaces are the biggest distractions in offices.

If you started following us on Instagram (@askdotcom) then you already saw this obscure Photo of the Day Challenge. The hint was,”Iron Man may have stolen the box offices this weekend, but can you guess who this other #marvel superhero is?”

Did you guess right?

It was Thor!

Fun fact: Did you know that Thor has 22 aliases?? He can also be known as:

Donald M. Blake, God of Thunder, Son of Odin, the Thunderer, Lord of Asgard, Jake Olson, Sigurd Jarlson, Donar, Donner, Hloriddi, Unhappy Hrungnir’s Playmate, Veur, Hrodr’s Foe-Man, Longbeard’s Son, Vingthor the Hurler, Siegfried, Siegmund, “Woe-King”; impersonated Hercules, Harokin, Freya; formerly bound to Eric Masterson

Be sure to follow us on Instagram to play our Photo of the Day Challenge. You can find all the answers right here at the end of the day.

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

In today’s world, everyone knows that photos just aren’t as fun without a filter. We get that, which is why we’re so excited to announce the Ask Instagram account! It’s shiny, new and ready to be filled with photos (artfully filtered, of course) that set out to answer questions none of us knew we had.

Follow Ask on Instagram @askdotcom to play along with our daily “Photo of the Day Challenge” series. We’ll post a super close-up image and leave it up to you to figure out what/who/when/where it is! Leave your best guess in the comments and then check back here on the Ask blog later in the day for the big reveal. We’ll also be running fun contests to participate in, give you guys a chance to win some cool stuff and you’ll even be able to sneak a peak into the official Ask offices from time to time!

So get out your phone, find us on Instagram and come try to figure out our first photo of the day!

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

You know him from his guest appearances on this blog, but now’s your chance to hear from Ask’s Worldwide Customer Service and Technical Support Manager live! Eric McKirdy will be at the upcoming Customer Service Experience Conference in NYC on Monday August 19th talking about the success of our new customer support portal and our approach to getting customer service right!  

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

Many industries throw around terms such as “double down” and “big bet” and “big win” which may be an indication of why so many conferences pick Las Vegas as the location for companies to showcase their bets on their new products, new strategies and of course tout the successes of past wins. It was particularly fitting to spend time in Las Vegas at the Parafest conference focusing on industry trends and best practices in customer experience and support. Gathered together were 400 representatives of B2B and B2C companies as well as industry analysts and customer support product vendors.

My role there was not only to learn a lot (which I did), but also to present Ask’s story of the past year concerning our own efforts in this area. In addition to launching new products last year, we also rolled out a new Help Center to support those products. It was designed with an eye toward self-service, allowing our 100 million users the option to get the information they need at any time without having to wait for an agent to respond.

At the Parafest conference, I discovered the industry has taken notice! During the keynote, Ask’s Help Center was showcased as a trend to watch in 2013, and I fielded a lot of questions throughout the duration on why we’ve done what we’ve done.

The “why” is very simple: to connect our users with answers as quickly as possible, just as we try to do with all of our search products. We’re pleased to have a Help Center that lives up to our values. It’s a big bet which has really paid off!

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

SXSW Interactive 2013 has officially come to a close and if you weren’t able to make it to Austin, you missed our very own, Lisa Kavanaugh speaking with neuroscience expert, Janet Crawford, on “Why Neanderthals Make Lousy Entrepreneurs”. Did you know that in terms of how it operates our brains haven’t changed much since our Cro-Magnon days. We’re social animals designed to live 10,000 years ago in small tribes, totally dependent on the relationships around us. With biological programming that equates social approval with survival, it’s obvious why so many companies fall into collective groupthink, struggling to surface new and innovative ideas. Simply put: no one wants to look stupid. But there are (unexpected) ways to trick your brain into chilling out enough to coax innovative thinking out from the shadows. The audience helped Janet and Lisa explain how the brain works and how applying improv exercises and techniques to the product development cycle helped us at Ask.com to unlock our best ideas yet.

Think applied improv might help you in your workplace? 

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

As Hollywood preps for the 85^th Annual Academy Awards, Ask.com once again rolled out its red carpet predictions for the night’s biggest winners, as well as the stars Ask users expect to go home empty-handed. But there was one more burning question – how many degrees of separation is there between the nominees and Kevin Bacon?! And you’d be surprised at the connections – check it out:

- Suraya Akbarzad, Ask.com

So you’re probably one of those people who spend a lot a time working at your computer – hour after hour….But every now and then, don’t you just want to take a teeny, tiny break? Me too!

Ask just may have the solution for you. Ask.com’s Games section is a mother lode of games you can play right in your browser. But be warned: they’re highly addictive! For ease in browsing through them, we’ve divided them into these categories:

Without admitting to anything - such as how much time I might actually spend playing these games - I’ve found a few that I really like. I thought I’d share my top three with you, starting with one of my favorite things to do - crossword puzzles! We have a few of these in the Word section, but Crazy Crossword is the one I really like. 

Next, one of our newest additions to the Action category is Pizza Truck! Several levels of difficulty as you drive a delivery truck loaded with ingredients to Papa’s Pizzeria. I’m still getting the hang of driving the truck over the hills without dumping loads of mozzarella everywhere. It’s hard work keeping customers happy!

And finally, who says games should be mindless? In our Education section is The Brain Game that tests the strength of your brain, and probably helps improve your brain’s recall ability.

There! Lots of things to fill up the rest of your day. (You’re welcome.)

—Eric McKirdy, Ask Support