Ask.com has acquired content recommendation company nRelate for an undisclosed sum. nRelate is a service that serves up related article content on publishers’ pages in a box, similar to the one pictured. There is also an ad component, which enables publishers to get some money through a revenue share model.

“nRelate’s platform helps over 30k publishers (bloggers and other media) increase traffic through targeted article recommendations within content,” a representative for Ask tells WebProNews. “Ask will apply its technology and expertise in search-based content discovery to create new products and marketing opportunities for content owners.”

According to Ask, nRelate’s platform has spurred 15% growth in impressions each month during the past year. With nRelate as part of Ask, the product will get answers from Ask’s Q&A platform integrated into the mix.

“Ask.com has been successfully building its Q&A business, yielding record growth and profits, allowing us to witness, firsthand, how users’ appetites for browsing and discovering content is only growing,” said Ask CEO Doug Leeds. “In addition to enhancing reader engagement, nRelate represents a promising native monetization model for publishers. We’re also excited to provide a platform that enables content creators to expose top-notch content to new audiences.”

“When it comes to content discovery products, publishers often get the short end of the stick with little control or customization,” said nRelate CEO Neil Mody, who will continue to run the product under Ask. “nRelate has been successful in part due to the flexibility of our products that allow publishers to design the product exactly how they want. The combination with Ask gives us access to new technologies and resources to fuel a wider range of products that both move the needle for publishers and improve the reader experience.”

Ask’s Q&A platform attracts 65 million unique U.S. visitors per month, according to the company. This acquisition should give Ask a nice shot at increasing those numbers.