CNET: Ask Jeeves taps into desktop search

Ask Jeeves, still on an acquisitions tear, said it would buy Tukaroo, a company that makes on off-the-browser search utility and file management application. Ask Jeeves just announced earlier this week that it would be raising about $400 million to feed its growing habit. Search giants Google and Microsoft have been hard at work developing out-of-browser search utilities in the hopes of marrying users' desires to find things on the web as well as things already on their hard drives. The concept of search engines developing into a "desktop play" has been making venture capitalist hearts go pitter patter and is currently a direction for several firms seeking new rounds of venture funding.