Ask Jeeves UK Turns to Be Free for Affiliate Marketing Answers.

Business/Technology Editors

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 2, 2000

Be Free Builds on Ask Jeeves' Successful Affiliate Program in the

U.S. by Partnering with Ask Jeeves UK to Develop

Value-add Marketing Program

Be Free, Inc. (Nasdaq: BFRE), the leader in performance marketing and a provider of personalization for targeted marketing, today announced that it has partnered with Ask Jeeves UK a leading provider of humanized question answering technologies and services for web users in the UK. Through this partnership, Ask Jeeves will launch a UK affiliate marketing program enabled by Be Free's full service performance marketing solution.

Companies or individuals participating in the Ask Jeeves UK affiliate program place Ask Jeeves search boxes and promotions on their web sites, so that visitors can ask questions and get answers quickly and easily. Affiliates will be paid a commission for each click-through to the Ask Jeeves site generated from these promotions. Affiliates interested in learning more about the Ask Jeeves UK program can find out more by visiting http://www.ask.co.uk/docs/about/affiliates.asp.

"Performance marketing is a highly-effective means of customer acquisition and branding, especially for a content and service site such as Ask.co.uk," said Gordon Hoffstein, chairman and CEO of Be Free, Inc. "We are confident that our expertise in affiliate marketing and our increasing knowledge of the European Internet community will be factors for the success of the Ask Jeeves UK affiliate program."

"We witnessed the success of the Ask Jeeves affiliate program in the U.S. and knew that this was a program we needed to implement here in the UK," said Andrew Hart, CEO of Ask Jeeves UK. "We view affiliate marketing as an essential part of driving traffic to our site and increasing brand awareness. Be Free was the natural choice for our performance marketing partner -- with its growing presence in Europe, experience building European programs for other leading businesses, and its dominant position and solid reputation in the United States."

Ask Jeeves, Inc. is also continuing its affiliate marketing program after experiencing a highly successful first year with Be Free.

"Performance marketing is an integral part of a company's overall marketing strategy, as experienced by Ask.com," continued Hoffstein. "Be Free's business model is designed precisely for companies like Ask Jeeves, who are dedicated to brand awareness and customer loyalty. We congratulate Ask Jeeves, Inc. on its success and are confident that the expansion of the program into the UK will further strengthen its name-recognition and market position globally in the upcoming year."

About Ask Jeeves, Inc.

Ask Jeeves is a leading provider of intuitive, intelligent question answering technologies and services. Ask Jeeves' solutions help companies to convert online shoppers to buyers, reduce support costs, understand customer preferences and improve customer retention. Ask Jeeves also syndicates its solutions to portals, infomediaries, and content and destination sites to help companies increase e-commerce and advertising revenue. Ask Jeeves deploys its solutions on Ask Jeeves at ask.com, Ask Jeeves for Kids at ajkids.com and DirectHit.com to help companies target and acquire qualified prospects online and to provide consumers with real-time access to information, products and services.

For more information on Ask Jeeves, visit http://www.ask.com or call 510-985-7400.

About Ask Jeeves UK

Ask Jeeves UK, launched in February 2000, is a joint venture between Ask Jeeves International, Carlton Communications and Granada Media Group. Ask Jeeves International owns 50 percent of the UK company, with the other 50 percent being held jointly. Ask Jeeves for Business was launched in July 2000 and provides solutions that enable companies to create e-profitability through increased online sales conversion, improved customer retention and reduced support costs. For more information, visit http://www.ask.co.uk

About Be Free, Inc.

Be Free, Inc. (Nasdaq: BFRE) is the leader of performance marketing and a provider of personalization for targeted marketing. Be Free helps its customers build and manage branded online sales channels, which cost-effectively drive traffic, generate leads and extend brand reach. Be Free also provides a real-time personalization solution for its customers, helping them to increase conversion rates from promotion to sale on their web sites through personalized product or service recommendations. Be Free's customers include some of the Internet's leading merchants, online services and portals such as IBM (NYSE: IBM), America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), barnesandnoble.com (Nasdaq: BNBN), GoTo.com (Nasdaq: GOTO), Mercata, C|Net (Nasdaq: CNET), Garden.com (Nasdaq: GDEN), PC Connection (Nasdaq: PCCC), Lycos (Nasdaq: LCOS), About.com (Nasdaq: BOUT) and Yahoo!(R)GeoCities (Nasdaq: YHOO). Affiliates can enroll in performance marketing programs using Be Free's technology with a streamlined application form called FastApp, located at (http://fastapp.befree.com).

Founded in 1996, Be Free has offices in Marlborough, MA, Pittsburgh, PA, Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, Culver City, CA, Campbell, CA, Austin, TX, Silver Spring, MD, Seattle, WA, New York, NY and Windsor, UK and Paris, France. For more information about Be Free's BFAST(sm) performance marketing service or its BSELECT(sm) personalization service, visit http://www.befree.com/.

Statements in this news release about Be Free, Inc. may be considered forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the Company's current expectations, hopes, beliefs and estimates. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected. Further information about the risk factors that could affect the Company's performance are contained in the Company's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, including but not limited to its S-1 dated November 3, 1999 and its S-1 dated March 29, 2000.

Note To Editors: Ask Jeeves is a registered trademark of Ask Jeeves, Inc. Ask Jeeves for Kids, the "Ask" button, Jeeves Relevant Answers, Jeeves Popularity Search, Jeeves Related Search, Jeeves Insight, Jeeves Live and Ask.com are service marks of Ask Jeeves, Inc. Other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE Ask Jeeves, Inc.