The Retooling of a Search Engine - New York Times

 Timely search market reality check, including a chart showing Google with 45.4% of the US search market as of October, 2006

On Monday, Ask.com is introducing AskCity, a service that integrates maps with information about local businesses, restaurants, concert and movie listings and reviews.

These so-called local searches already account for 10 percent of all Internet queries and are expected to grow faster than other searches. They are also seen as a way to tap into tens of billions in spending by small businesses, which have yet to switch much of their advertising dollars to the Internet.

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Mr. Lanzone said there was another way that Ask could become an increasingly valuable property. The alliance with Google, which still serves up about 60 percent of all the ads on Ask, will end next year. Given that Google has paid huge sums to deliver ads on sites like MySpace and AOL, Ask should be in a good position to negotiate, Mr. Lanzone said.

Source: The Retooling of a Search Engine - New York Times