In a recent AP article, IAC’s Chairman of the Board Barry Diller was quoted as saying that not only is Ask.com the glue which keeps IAC together, but Ask.com’s search technology is also better than Google.
Diller said the company would use its Ask.com search engine, which claims about 6 percent of the search market, as “the glue” to tie together its varied Internet properties.
He said Ask’s technology was better than Google’s, since it was based on “context and community” rather than popularity, and predicted Ask could get at least double-digit market share going forward. Google holds nearly 50 percent of the total search market.
IAC is planning on rolling out more and more content oriented sites with an emphasis on the youth market of humor, games and videos. They purchased CollegeHumor.com last year and are also launching another humor based news site called 23/6:
Diller said IAC/InterActiveCorp would start a news comedy Web site within months that would take a “satirical turn on the day’s events.” The site is called 23/6, a name that mocks the phrase 24/7.
Ideally, if Ask.com is the common denominator between all of these content spinoffs, and search is integrated into the user experience, usage of Ask.com will increase along with the serving of sponsored listings provided by Google or Ask.com themselves.
Other IAC properties include Match.com, HSN.com, ticketmaster.com, RealEstate.com, CitySearch, eVite, Bloglines, and LendingTree.
