The Inter Active Corp. (IAC), which owns search engine Ask.com, is moving away from its core business after failing to maintain its position as a competitor to Google.
The company has recently decided to axe 130 engineering jobs at its Edison, New Jersey and Hangzhou, China offices.
According to the New York Times, the retreat from the search market is a major blow for Barry Diller, the CEO of IAC, who spent $1.85 billion to buy Ask.com back in 2005.
Over the years Ask.com has been struggling to compete with Google in the search market, but was unsuccessful in its mission.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google controls 63 per cent of the US online search market, while Ask.com accounted for only 3 per cent.
Diller accepted that it could no longer compete with Google and the company would now focus solely on Question and Answer aspect of the site.
The company has denied that it is shutting down Ask.com and said that it will continue to offer search results but will cease to compile an index of the entire web.
via ITProPortal
No comments:
Post a Comment