Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continued its torrid command of the internet search market in February, powering 72% of all those searches. As always, the next three competitors were way behind: Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has 17% of the market, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) had 6% and Ask.com had 4%.

InterActive Corp.'s (NASDAQ: IACI) search engine and information portal Ask.com continues to try and re-invent itself to compete more heavily with search leader Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). With Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) being such a large distraction over this past summer, the time seemed appropriate for Ask.com to try -- again -- to take some steam from Google. From anyone, for that matter.

It still won't happen. Here's why: Google's search product still is compelling to all that use it, even with marginally better search products. Google also has its hand in news, email, documents, spreadsheet, blogs, etc., and continues to recruit the customer that uses Google for everything possible on the web.

Its main product is search and that also provides almost all its revenue. But how can Ask.com compete with something like this? A better product, faster search results, or a more intuitive experience won't cut it any longer. What Ask.com would need is a disruptive product to even think about competing with Google. It's been over a few years since I've written on Ask.com's foray into competing with Google. In many ways, it's superior. That's, unfortunately, no longer enough.

Is Ask.com trying to win a losing battle? Perhaps. When Ask.com CEO Jim Safka says that Ask.com can recruit web searchers from Google with a 30% speed increase in search results, he's deluding himself. I'm not sure where that research came from, but Ask.com may be on its last stand. The search engine is pulling in ad revenue from the use of its products, and it may be content to grow steadily in that arena for the time being. But if it really wants to attack Google's ad revenue cash cow, something completely innovative and fresh needs to be forthcoming.

When Ask.com's mapping service was just getting up to speed as a very workable product, the company decided to jettison its in-house mapping service and instead install Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) own mapping service. Ask.com company parent InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) apparently decided to cut some costs in the day and age of hyper-competition with Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft and just outsource a great product that was taking up too many resources with too little to show for it.

Microsoft's Virtual Earth technology is now powering Ask.com mapping service. It should not be seen as defeat for Ask.com, as Microsoft's offering is superior in almost every way from my experience (and most likely, cheaper to license instead of maintaining an in-house product). This brings up an important question: is Ask.com in cost-cutting mode temporarily or permanently? The search engine and portal has seen its global market share sit pretty idle for the last year, as has Microsoft. Google, meanwhile, has slightly increased its search marketshare, Let's face it -- Ask.com, like those others, makes it's money in search (with smaller peripheral income sources of course).

Where is Ask.com's future revenue going to come from? Search advertising? Shopping commissions? All of the above? If Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is possibly going to outsource its search to Google, what is stopping Ask.com from using Google's technology as well? That would literally pit Microsoft and Google as bulls racing towards each other. But if Ask.com is fretting over the continuance of its mapping product, search can't be that far behind. Then, the Ask.com brand will be the only thing left.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) needs to build up its little Ask.com franchise before it is spun out in a breakup of the parent company. Ask.com is an "also ran" in the search engine fight which includes Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

In an attempt to turn a loser into a contender, IACI is buying Lexico, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Lexico sites drew about 15.6 million unique U.S. visitors in March, according to comScore Inc., compared with 55.4 million for Ask and an array of affiliated sites."

Even if the price of the new addition is low, the Lexico sites are not likely to do much good for the Ask.com franchise. It has already fallen so far behind the three search leaders that it almost certainly cannot catch up. Internet users have already set their preference in this part of the online market. Owning a dictionary site is not going to help that.

IACI's Ask.com can't come from behind and buying additional reference sites is not going to change that.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 newsletter.

Will InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) be dumping its search and information portal Ask.com? Sort of, according some insider accounts. It wouldn't be jettisoning Ask.com entirely -- it would just be getting rid of the technology that powers the search engine's results. The engine behind Ask.com, Teoma, could be taken out and replaced by Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s technology.

Google already has a stranglehold on internet search. It's been suggested for quite a while that Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) dump its pride in its search engine technology (known as Project Panama for the last few years) and just use Google instead for powering its search engine. Does Google have that much power -- one that would make competitors use its search engine technology to power their own sites? Yes, it does.

If Ask.com were to switch to just using Google, then the search service really would hold little value to the customers using it. Sure, Ask.com would wrap Google search results in its own brand and customer interface, but would there truly be a compelling reason to use Ask.com at that point? Not really. Just like Yahoo!, Ask.com has spent huge amounts of cash to improve its search technology with little to show for it.

That's the first-mover advantage Google has. Even if either had a better search service, that wouldn't mean more search customers. Then again, does either have a superior search service? I personally use Ask.com daily in addition to Google -- it's great. For my sole search engine service, though, it's not that good.

InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) is turning the executive offices upside down in a management shakeup, which will see Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone leave the company. Lanzone will land at Redpoint Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence while he continues serving Ask.com in an advisory role for at least a few more months.

InterActive is preparing to shed itself of several key properties, including the Home Shopping Network (HSN), Ticketmaster, Interval International and Lending Tree. InterActive CEO and industry heavyweight Barry Diller said"These changes are intended to strengthen and streamline the operating structure at IAC, both leading up to our intended spin-offs, and beyond."

Although Diller praised Lanzone for turning around Ask.com in his two-year tenure there, nothing has really changed with the search engine's market share in that time besides some small market share gains. I use Ask.com daily and find it to be a highly reliable and engaging experience. The problem is Google, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) huge first-mover advantage in the internet search and advertising space. Ask.com has said it is fine with the industry placement it has, but growth doesn't come by standing still. Yes, Ask.com still holds a decent fourth-place rating in the internet search industry -- but is that enough moving forward? Doubtful -- unless it can monetize its customers nicely and see growth in that arena.

In November internet search engine rankings by comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) again lead the pack, with 5.9 billion core searches conducted -- a 58.6% market share of all searches in the internet. This was almost the exact same level as October.

Coming up a distant second (as usual) was Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) with market share of 22.4%. The next three were Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) at 9.8%, IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s (NASADAQ: IACI) Ask.com at 4.6% and Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL at 4.5%. In November (a seasonally weak month for web searches), U.S. web searchers conducted 10 billion searches -- a 5% decline from October.

Do these rankings surprise any web surfer? They shouldn't -- Google continues to dominate internet searches and Yahoo!'s Project Panama -- although technically a job well done -- is probably too late to the party to put any significant pressure on Google. Microsoft's Live Search push has garnered it about the same market share as in the past (a decent third place). The power of first-mover advantage is quite evident in Google's placement, and I'd suspect it's not going anywhere soon.

IAC InterActive (NASDAQ:IACI)'s Ask.com has about 5% of the U.S. search engine market -- not much.

But the internet property is going to try to go against the trend. Instead of taking data from customers to target ads, Ask.com will let users "hide" their search data to promote privacy. The company is launching "AskEraser," which will destroy all personal information about a user.

According to The New York Times, unlike typical online privacy controls that can be difficult for average users to find or modify, people will be able to turn AskEraser on or off with a single click."

The privacy police will probably be very happy about the announcement. But it takes a big targeting tool away from Ask, and Ask can use all the help that it can get. It has tried and tried but has had no success in prying search share from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) or Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

The move by Ask is based on the premise that most people care if search engines collect data on them to better target search results and advertising. Since very few people opt out of programs that collect data online, the answer is that almost no one gives a damn.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Henry Blodget of AlleyInsider.com was out with a report yesterday calling for one of the big portals to be acquired again.

"Amid all the speculation about Microsoft (MSFT) buying Yahoo (YHOO), Yahoo buying AOL (TWX), etc., one thing is nearly certain: One of these transactions will eventually take place -- and probably sooner rather than later. Why? Because Google has locked up the No. 1 spot in the sector, and market won't support more than three competitors."

He also gives scenarios where Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) would be a buyer of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX)'s AOL. Previously, Blodget has covered Yahoo! buying AOL and has given other scenarios where AOL could or should become part of a larger company via an acquisition.

But there are some additional issues here to consider. Let's pretend that Jeff Bewkes decided to just jettison AOL. The company still has some dial-up subscribers and it has invested much effort in its advertising platform, now renamed Platform A. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) made a $1 billion strategic investment and the terms originally dictated that a monetizing event of some sort would come due in early 2008 (that is right around the corner).

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is releasing a major upgrade to its search engine technology. The company calls the new version an improvement, but only time can tell whether that is accurate. According to the FT the product promises "more relevant answers to queries and integrates audio, video and photos into its results pages." Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Ask.com have also released similar upgrades to their search products.

Yahoo! almost certainly spent a huge sum of money and precious engineering resources to bring the new product to market, but the company is in the unenviable position of launching a new version of its technology that is not likely to get it any additional marketshare. In other words, the company is running hard to stay in place.

It may be notable that the Yahoo! search improvement comes after those from Microsoft and Ask.com. It is a sign that being first to market in the most profitable part of the internet business is no longer prized because of Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) huge lead.

For beaten down Yahoo!, a better mouse trap is not terribly valuable if there are no mice to catch.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) has a head honcho with some meaty chops in the entertainment and publishing business. Barry Diller, who has spearheaded television, movies and now internet entertainment (among many other areas) was interviewed recently for his take on the past and his prowess on inventing the future, so to speak. Diller's claim to fame as he put it? Try this: "The only thing that's ever driven me is curiosity."

Diller's internet empire stretches from Expedia.com (travel) to Ask.com (search). It also has other properties that hang somewhat in the balance, like LendingTree.com and TicketMaster.com. One of his most recent deals was plunking down $50 million for a majority stake in GarageGames so that consumers can play graphically rich games on their PCs not needing those PC-priced videogame consoles.

Lloyd Grove of Portfolio.com interview of Diller covers many subjects, the most fascinating of which are Diller's takes on how the internet is changing everything and why newspapers are on their way out. These are two items that I follow quite closely so when someone with Diller's track record voices his opinion on them, I'm interested.

A few morsels: 1) IACI's stock in the last 10 years has done well despite turbulences in the last three to five years. 2) Wall Street doesn't understand InterActive since it is such a complex megamachine in a zillion business units, and 3) why web-based news aggregation and value-adding has not really been done yet (and why newspapers are quasi-doing that, but going downhill as a distribution medium).

Diller's perspective is worth reading, whether you agree with him or not. He does get some plugs in for the companies he's involved with (what good leader wouldn't), but his interview is an entertaining read nonetheless.

Yesterday, comScore released the July market share data for the search engine industry. The results were not pretty for Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), with its share standing at just 23.5% for the month, way behind Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) 55.2% share of the market. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) stood at 12%, IAC/InterActiveCorp's (NASDAQ: IACI) Ask.com at 4.7% and Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) at 4.4%.

While the market share data was being released, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was telling Bloomberg that Yahoo would be an expensive acquisition. However, Ballmer may be positioning Microsoft to once again approach the No. 2 search engine company. Earlier this year, news reports circulated that Microsoft and Yahoo were in partnership discussions.

By combining its own sites with that of Yahoo's, Microsoft's market share would quickly jump to 36% market share -- not too bad. With the Internet just over ten years old, paying $50 billion for that much market share may be the best money Microsoft can spent. To date, the PC-centric software giant has had a tough time with most of its Internet initiatives. Conversely, Yahoo CEO, Jerry Yang, has to realistically assess its ability to catch up to the Google machine.

At the end of the day, the Silicon Valley-based search company may have to swallow its pride and hook up with the much despised Washington-based software giant. Microsoft would get to utilize its deep bench of software engineers with a powerful and underutilized portal, while Yahoo would get to move away from its foray into the media business and move back to being a technology driven company.

It may be their last chance to survive and thrive in the Internet era before having their lunches completely eaten by Google.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) released second quarter 2007 results , reporting $1.5 billion in revenue, representing a 6% rate of growth over the prior year. The company also posted $136 million in Operating Income Before Amortization, compared to $165 million in the year ago period. Adjusted EPS was $0.31, compared to $0.32 in the year ago period.

Operating income fell 33% to $54.4 million.

On a segment basis, revenue at the big retailing operation, which includes HSN, was up only 1% to $701.4 million. Operating income for the division fell 31% to $34.5 million.

Revenue in the transaction segment, which includes TicketMaster, was up 2% to $441.9 million. Operating income fell 36% to $48.5.

The media and advertising segment, which includes Ask.com, had revenue growth of 33% to $174 million. But, the segment had a loss of $10.7 million.

It looks like the small conglomerate is not doing very well and Ask.com does not appear to be bringing home the bacon.

Wall Street could fairly question why Barry Diller has all of these companies under one roof. They do each other very little good.

IACI stock was indicating down 4.6% just before the market opened at 9:26 am.

With Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) set to release its quarterly financial performance report this afternoon, will the internet search and advertising leader have another blowout quarter? All signs point to yes, according to my magic 8-ball. But until then, the Mountain View, Calif., company can soak up the knowledge that, gasp, it actually lost a tiny percentage of internet search market share in June. Oh no! Let loose the hounds! Microsoft made a few gains as well -- so is Google sweating? Very doubtful.

Actually, fluctuations happen every single month among the internet search kingpins like Google, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Ask.com (NASDAQ: IACI). When Google and Yahoo! swap a half of a percentage point in market share for internet search, blog entries (like this one) and the media play it up. It's a non-issue, though. There are an infinite number of variables during each month globally -- like PC shipments, broadband internet penetration, mobile phone sales and marketing programs from all the search leaders -- which all affect market share in these nice little percentage slices.

Google web properties held fast in June with a 49.5% share of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo! sat at a comfortable 25.1% of the U.S. market. Microsoft was in third place with 13.2% and Ask.com and its network saw a market share of 5%. In fifth was Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX)'s AOL unit, with 4.2%. To put those percentages into perspective, U.S. internet customers conducted 8 billion searches in June, up 26% from June 2006. So, although the percentages are staying pretty much the same in terms of proportion, the actual volume has spiked nicely from a year ago. And, Google is still taking the lion's share. Minor percentage drop? Google's still sitting very pretty.

Every time you look at your children and wish they would grow up and stop being so immature, remember that the two are not synonomous. Case in point -- eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY). The market-leading auction website left Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) AdWords advertising system because it was miffed that Google planned a party the same day as eBay's annual user celebration in Boston.

Well after crying at its party, eBay came crawling back, apparently realizing that although it has other options -- Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO), IAC/InterActiveCorp's (NASDAQ: IACI) Ask.com, and Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) MSN.com -- none are nearly as good as AdWords. EBay's inability to stay away serves as an example of Google's strength in the Internet advertising market.

Of course, this is not what eBay is claiming. EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said, "Overall the takeaway for us was that we weren't as dependent on AdWords as some out there may have thought... Other partners -- Yahoo and AOL and MSN -- really stepped up and provided a lot of value. And natural search continues to drive a lot of valuable traffic to the site."

Empty words, since the actions don't coincide.