Just read about IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine over at Search Engine Land:
“..It is clear to me that cutting an already overworked staff shows that Diller is clearly not wanting to invest in competing against Google. In fact, the Wall Street Journal clearly says that by reporting they are focusing on exclusively on women asking questions about health and entertainment.
There does seem to be some truth to the rumors that IAC is dropping Ask’s technology. Although we do not know the jobs of the 40 employees who were laid off, we do know they are changing their technology focus. So although the statement Ask.com gave us saying these rumors were false, there is some truth to it.”
We knew something was in the works, I just wrote about it last week in Ask.com getting rid of Teoma and moving to Google?
Update: Kinda weird that IAC is giving up on ASK Search Technology just as it’s moving up in Search Market Share:
Hitwise, today announced that Google accounted for 66.44 percent of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending February 23, 2008. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 20.59, 6.95 and 4.16 percent respectively. The remaining 46 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.87 percent of U.S. searches.
