Is "AskMe" an Opera product? (Update: Yes)

[Denizen976]

Denizen976 last edited by leocg

One of the AI newsletters mentioned "AskMe" as an AI search tool.
( askme . feednews . com )

I tried it. I won't evaluate it here, but I am curious about the product.

The main page has little/no information on who is behind it, but...

You have to use an account to use the site (only Gmail and Discord) - there is no information on what information is shared to or from the signin account.
There is no "branding" on the page. There is no company name associated with the website There is a small "copyright" claim, referencing AskMe - but it is not a link to a company or provider.
If you sign in, your sign-in icon has the vertical dots for options. There is also a small footer at the bottom of the page with some generic links: Privacy, Terms, Security, Cookies Policy. If you click either the account options or the footer links, the user is taken to Opera pages for those topics. That makes it Look like this is an Opera product.

Update:
I just went upstream. It Is an Opera product, they just don't claim it.
If you go to Feednews(dot)com, it's an Opera news feed service - it's just junk. It looks like it's click-bait-y headlines intended to trick users into reading "Dermatologist reveals gross reason some people get more mosquito bites than others".

I'm sorry to say, feednews appears to be Junk, and that makes me think that "AskMe" is just as much Junk.

Is that why there is no Opera branding on the page?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer @Denizen976 last edited by

@denizen976 You are talking about....?

[Denizen976]

Denizen976 @leocg last edited by

@leocg I was commenting on what appeared to be an un-attributed/rogue AI website.
It wasn't properly identified, and, while it wasn't horrible, it also wasn't great.

I was concerned because of the source being non-attributed, but the appearance of whatever links on the page pulling from Opera pages.

For my part, I wanted to let anybody involved w/ Opera know that it was out there. I thought I was doing some minor service to Opera by announcing it, just in case it was some rougish thing.

It turns out it's an Opera product. I don't think it was meant to be a full-fledged AI chatbot, but more of an AI-augmented search tool.. It's just not labeled. At all.

Finding out that it was on Opera turf was a little comforting. Seeing the content of the feed-next-door was ... disappointing, at best, because of the quality of the stories in the feed.

So, all in all, it's not a security crisis of some hidden AI masquerading as a legit service, snuck under the Opera wing.. It IS a branding disaster, as... a) who will know about it, and b) if it's useful, who will know that it's associated w/ Opera?

[jbrzezicki]

jbrzezicki @Denizen976 last edited by

@denizen976 Thanks Denizen976, I was looking exactly for this answer. It's a suggestion that's auto-populated on Opera's start page, without explanation as to why it's suggested, who it's for or who owns it. It's even more misleading since Opera also pushes AIChat. Two AI chat bots? Makes anyone question the legitimacy of these sites.