Apparently, the perennial fourth-place finisher in the search engine contest is rubbing its hands, and fingers, in anticipation of being in medal contention once it's acquired by InterActive Corp. and receives an infusion of resources. According to a post in Search Engine Lowdown (which is sponsored by Jeeves) after a behind-the-scenes tour of the company's HQ, "If they can innovate this much, with so little, it will be exciting to see what they can do once they join the Barry Diller juggernaut."

And that's the gist of it: "it's clear that the search engine has strong aspirations of finally stepping out from the shadow of Google and Yahoo. While the company has been able to innovate with a fraction of the employees and resources that its California neighbors have, the partnership with IAC will likely see a financial injection that will enable Ask to start taking serious market share away."

According to recent reports, Ask Jeeves' priorities include international expansion, mobile and local search. And it is designing a search engine for blogs, due in several months.