Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

ASK.com search engine gives error 404 page not found

more options

I run Windows 7 on a 64 bit desktop and have the latest version of Firefox. I have refreshed Firefox but since the last update each time I try to use the search engine Ask.com either in the Firefox start page or in the search box at top right of the screen it always returns with" Error 404 Page not Found". When I searched using the word "Drive" in Ask,com Firefox went to the web address below which returned error 404 page not found. http://uk.ask.com/ar?siteid=10000906&qsrc=999&l=dis&q=drive

Other search engines e.g. Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Google, Wikipedia work well from Firefox start page If I use the internet to go directly into www.ask.com the search engine works well. How can I use Ask.com from Firefox start page?

I run Windows 7 on a 64 bit desktop and have the latest version of Firefox. I have refreshed Firefox but since the last update each time I try to use the search engine Ask.com either in the Firefox start page or in the search box at top right of the screen it always returns with" Error 404 Page not Found". When I searched using the word "Drive" in Ask,com Firefox went to the web address below which returned error 404 page not found. http://uk.ask.com/ar?siteid=10000906&qsrc=999&l=dis&q=drive Other search engines e.g. Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Google, Wikipedia work well from Firefox start page If I use the internet to go directly into www.ask.com the search engine works well. How can I use Ask.com from Firefox start page?

Chosen solution

Hi Grrrrhwll, I don't know whether those parameters came from. I suspect it was an "affiliate" link that Ask paid someone to get into your browser, and those codes rang their register. The base page is gone now, so even without the query string (the ? mark and following) it yield a missing page error:

http://uk.ask.com/ar

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (3)

more options

Is Ask your default search engine? You can double-check that setting here: Change your default search settings in Firefox.

I don't think an Ask search engine plugin is included with Firefox, so that must have been added on somehow. You may need to replace the existing plugin with a new one. Here's one way:

(1) Open your preferred Ask site, for example http://www.ask.com/

(2) Check Firefox's search bar (the one up on the main toolbar) for a green "+" circle on the magnifying glass indicating that the site has a search engine plugin Firefox can load

(3) If you see that, click the icon and then on the panel that drops down, click the button to add that search engine (see screen shot attached)

I didn't see a similar plugin when I visited https://uk.ask.com/ so if you prefer that site (UK results?) you can consider the UK Ask options on the following page:

http://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=ask

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

more options

Thanks jsher2000, but Ask.com was my default search engine up to the last Firefox update, because I chose to add it to Firefox. Since then Ask.com always returns error 404 page not found when I try to use it either as default or from the Firefox search bar. I searched using the word "Drive" in Firefox search via Ask.com which then gave error 404 and showed the web address: http://uk.ask.com/ar?siteid=10000906&qsrc=999&l=dis&q=drive

Firefox added the characters /ar?siteid=10000906&qsrc=999&l=dis&q Is that the cause of my difficulty? Thank you for suggesting that I add uk.ask.com from mycroftproject.com IT WORKS! The UK version for Ask is not available via Firefox search engines. Thank you for your advice.

more options

Chosen Solution

Hi Grrrrhwll, I don't know whether those parameters came from. I suspect it was an "affiliate" link that Ask paid someone to get into your browser, and those codes rang their register. The base page is gone now, so even without the query string (the ? mark and following) it yield a missing page error:

http://uk.ask.com/ar