America Online, the internet division of Time Warner, is making a push into the growing search engine market. The move is an effort to revitalise the business by increasing revenues from online advertising.

AOL wants to broaden its audience in the US beyond its 22m paying subscribers to attract more advertising. Part of its strategy is to develop a service focused on providing more detailed and tailored answers to users' questions. It is expected to be a key feature in the relaunch of the AOL.com portal later this year.