There's an interesting article over at Silicon Alley Insider which is talking about the possibility that IAC is going to dump the Teoma search engine and just using the Google search engine with their own interface bolted on top. The same story is coming out of Valleywag and paidContent. At this stage it's all chinese whispers, in so far as there's no definite news, just lots of rumour, speculation and "tips from insiders".
The problem of course is that you can't really just 'bolt on' an interface and expect it to work in the same way. It would take a lot of work to achieve that and to be honest, what is the point of doing that if you end up with basically the same product? If it's not a product that people want in the first place I doubt that they're not satisfied with the results, it's the whole concept. This is unfortunate for serious searchers because Ask is a good serious search engine, and I sing its praises with the blended search approach that is a key element and sorely missing from Google.
Clearly Ask hasn't been able to break into the big three, which is a huge shame because it's very high quality and I hope these rumours don't come to anything (and I'm not going to believe any of it anyway until Gary Price tells me different) - we need more search engines providing their own unique brands and ideas, not less. Personally I blame the really bad advertising campaigns, and I've said all alone that they were grim. Sack the advertising company for starters!
Of course - the next question to ask, presuming that Ask does disappear, so I'm taking a huge leap here obviously - which engine is going to try and take their place, or can Ask still hold their small market share if they morph into a nicer Google interface? I'd put my money on Exalead personally. It's a solid search engine, lots of interesting search options providing good results. However, I think we're a way off yet from having to consider the question. Watch this space!
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