EngineWorks

Today, DMNews reported that the current CEO at Ask.com, Jim Lanzone, will be stepping down, and be replaced immediately by Jim Safka, the current CEO of Primal Ventures, a new venture firm that identifies business opportunities for Ask.com’s parent company IAC Search and Media.

This announcement comes at the same that IAC is preparing to separate into five publicly traded companies. As you may be aware, IAC plans to spin-off Ask.com., Ticketmanster, LendingTree, HSN, and Interval International into stand-alone public entities.

I can see the value of several of these entities operating as independent publicly-traded companies, however, I perceive that Ask.com will have a difficult time on its own, given that the search company is current bringing-up the rear in the race of the top-5 search engines.

As shown below, Ask.com had only 2.7 percent of the United States search market in November 2007, according to the December 2007 Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search report.

Search Provider        Percent of Searches       Y-O-Y Growth Rate

Google                                57.7%                                40.8%
Yahoo!                                17.9%                                26.7%
MSN/Windows Live        1 2.0%                              27.8%
AOL                                      4.5%                                14.7%
Ask.com                                2.7%                                10.5%

The daunting challenge that Ask.com faces is the fact that, unlike its top rival Google, the company needs to spend significant advertising dollars on traditional media, such as television commercials, to attract new users. It’s always an up-hill climb when your top competitor is perceived as the ‘default’ provider. But, that may be why they are going after “The Street” money.

Let me know if you think Ask.com will be a relevant player in the next few years.