Positioning itself as the privacy-conscious search engine, Ask.com is rolling out a new product aimed at offering users peace of mind when it comes to their search results.

Dubbed "AskEraser," the new tool will purge search queries from Ask's servers within a few hours of the initial search. By contrast, Google and Microsoft store data for 18 months, while Yahoo! and AOL retain queries for 13 months.

"We definitely want to stand out from the other guys," Doug Leeds, Ask.com's senior VP of product management, told Reuters. "This level of control is unprecedented and unmatched."

Standing out from the competition may be all well and good, but if Ask hopes to win over a significant portion of users, it still has a long way to go. According to the latest Hitwise data, Ask accounts for a little more than 4 percent of U.S. searches. MSN, Ask's closest rival, accounts for about 7 percent, but the lion's share of search goes to Google, with 65 percent.