IAC: Ready To Bail On Ask? from Silicon Valley Insider reports an insider tip that IAC may sell off or abandon their search technology and outsource it to Google.

Here is the tip:

There is indeed a big shakeup coming. A new Ask. Some think a reduction in workforce is likely. There are no sacred cows, Teoma may be sold or simply abandoned which is hundreds of engineers who work on the core search engine, in place of just using Google’s search with our special brand of user interface.

I can honestly say, if true, it does not surprise me. Diller, IAC’s CEO, is not happy with the return he has been seeing from Ask.com. Although he has said time and time again that he loves the technology, Diller is a numbers guy.

We saw signs of this early this week when I noticed they added more ads to the top of the organic spot. As I argue there, “by placing so many ads above your organic results, it says that you feel the ads are more relevant than their own search results.” Who powers those sponsored results? Mostly Google.

The algorithm is from New Jersey and much of the engineering staff is based there. Is this an end to “the algorithm,” the end to Teoma?

I have a question in with the Ask.com team, and as soon as I hear back, I will postscript.

Postscript: Ask.com got back to me on Monday saying these rumors are false. They said that the “bottom line” is that the rumors are “just flat-out not true.” Adding that “our Teoma technology will continue to power search engine results on Ask.com. That’s really all there is to it.” A bit more over at Ask.com Calls Teoma Rumors False.

Related Topics: Ask: Business Issues

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz