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Quote:Just to be clear, IAC did not sell of their search engine, nor did they begin syndicating Google to power their search engine as of today. By saying "kills search engine" in the headlines, I meant Ask.com is being refocused to build out an engine that answers questions tailored to women searching on health and entertainment. To me, that implies Ask.com will no longer seriously compete in the search space with search giants like Google, Yahoo or Microsoft. I also would not be surprised if we see Google begin to power the Ask.com organic results within the year, based on where I see things leading...

Quote:Ask.com is looking to women for answers. The 12-year-old search engine is reportedly narrowing its focus to appeal to married women, mostly in the South and Midwest, in its first major move under the direction of new CEO Jim Safka...

Even retreating to a narrower market segment is no guarantee of success for Ask.com, Alvarez added. "They're still going to have a challenge, because Google has become -- in terms of recognition -- a household name. So, it's not like working mothers don't know about Google, and Ask.com can capture them. It's still a highly competitive market -- even within the segment -- and it's going to remain competitive."...