IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller, speaking during a quarterly earnings call with investors, said he is confident that synergies between Ask.com (the erstwhile Jeeves) and IAC's various content and ecommerce sites will result in success, writes ClickZ. "There's a symbiosis that's natural between a search engine and these fantastic vertical services," he is quoted as saying. Since its acquisition in July, Ask.com has begun to be incorporated into the IAC network; for one, search boxes have been added on most IAC sites.

The fifth-ranked search engine's market share increased 25 percent since January, ending September with 6.4 percent of U.S. search queries, according to comScore.

IAC's profits dipped despite higher revenue, mainly due to costs related to the spin-off of Expedia: Revenue last quarter increased 55 percent over the year-ago quarter, up $526 million to $1.483 billion; net income dropped 24 percent to $68.1 million, or $0.19 per share, compared with $89.5 million, or $0.24 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue growth was led by the Media and Advertising unit, mostly due to the acquisition of Ask Jeeves, which increased its revenue 15 percent over the same period last year, though growth was checked by IAC's decision to reduce the number of sponsored search results to improve user experience.