The Ask search engine's Tuesday-launched 'Ask Deals' service helps consumers save money while shopping online, as facilitates their search for online coupons and bargains listed from various popular coupon Web sites, including retail Web sites, message boards and blogs.

Boasting a proprietary database of over one million offers, the new Ask service would not only allure bargain-hunters, but also help them look for the money-saving deals on the Web by aggregating the best of the discounts on goods and services available online.

To in corporate the new feature, Ask has a dedicated "deals" tab on its search engine page, Ask. com. The deals, which will be integrated with regular search results on the site, will be denoted with special icons and subsequently made available on a separate 'Ask. com/deals' page.

About the company decision to focus on the bargain market, Scott Garell, President of Ask Networks, said that since a number of prudent shoppers use coupons, the new Ask service would help save their time as well as money.

In addition, the company said that most of the current bargain sites differ in quality and range, and some even contain coupons that are either fake or invalid.

Garell added that to ensure 'Ask Deals' posts valid deals, the company will use a software to filter the results, and an editorial team will also help determine the validity of the bargains.