With all the gloom in the global economy, I got to wondering whether there is anything else going on in the world of business. I'm looking for growth because I think that's what will ultimately bring the economy out of the doldrums. Not surprisingly, that growth is coming from technology companies. In Growth Matters, I look at consumer technology companies that point the way to growth trends -- and in the process introduce services and products you may want to explore.

If you're thinking of having a party, it might not be a bad idea to use Evite to send out the invitations and plan the event. As Evite's Vice-President of Marketing and Public Relations Lariayn Payne told me, "Evite is the leading online service on the Web for invitations and party planning. Evite is free and easy-to-use and offers hundreds of stylish invitation designs for almost any occasion. Evite also offers fun and creative party ideas, planning checklists, and other tools, which save party hosts both time and money."

Ever since Barry Diller cobbled together the internet Frankenstein called IAC/InterActiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI), he had been assuring investors that somehow it all made sense to group together TicketMaster with Evite with Ask.com. Wall Street cried confusion.

Then the media mogul spun off his Expedia travel business into a separate company, figuring that was the reason why investors were confused by the ungainly IAC. Judging from the stock price, investors were just as confused as ever, even as IAC said it was "proud to have so many great brands under one roof." Now, Diller has thrown in the towel and is splitting up IAC into five separate publicly traded companies. As envisioned, IAC would be more or less a media and entertainment company, maintaining businesses including Ask.com, Citysearch, Evite, CollegeHumor and Bloglines. The other companies would be centered around HSN, TicketMaster, and Interval International.

Diller seems to have gotten the message from Wall Street, albeit about five years too late.

"We've been a complex enterprise almost from the very beginning 12 years ago, with hundreds of transactions over those years," he said. "And while we've created a lot of value, I've always believed our complexity and many mouthfuls of sentences to explain who we are and what our strategy is have hampered clarity and understanding with all our constituencies, particularly investors."

Plus, the confusion was costing Diller money.

Next week IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) will introduce new Web-based local city guides. Chairman and CEO Barry Diller announced the move yesterday.

The new guides will debut on December 4 and will be called AskCity. It will combine the assets of Ask.com, Citysearch, Evite and Ticketmaster, all IAC properties.

The Ask.com search service will be redesigned, with a new home page among other changes.

IAC is focusing on growing its own businesses in the never-ending race with Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) for search engine and e-commerce supremacy.