New search service links Diller's Web territories

OAKLAND — Forget the butler. Ask.com is playing concierge.

The search engine, previously known as Ask Jeeves, today is launching a service to connect Web surfers with local business listings, movie times, events and digital maps.

What separates AskCity from rival local search engines, analysts say, is the depth of information it's able to draw on from its corporate parent, IAC/InterActiveCorp.

The service is stocked with data from other IAC properties: restaurant reviews from Citysearch, concert listings from Ticketmaster and TicketWeb, contractor appointments from ServiceMagic, even campground reservations from ReserveAmerica.

"Search is evolving from something that helps you find links to something that helps you get things done online faster," said Ask CEO Jim Lanzone.

For instance, Ask users can plan an outing without leaving the site: reserve a table at a restaurant, buy tickets for a jazz club, find a hip bar to go to afterward and print driving directions to get from place to place.

Barry Diller, IAC's chairman and chief executive, thinks of Ask as "the connecting thread" among the company's specialized businesses, letting users search all of them through one interface.

"It's beginning to emerge as the unifying place for all of our vertical searches," Diller said.

IAC operates as what he calls an "integrated conglomerate" of media and commerce properties, including Home Shopping Network, LendingTree and Match.com. But its websites have mostly operated as separate entities.

That began to change when IAC acquired Ask Jeeves, named after the butler in P.G. Wodehouse stories, in July 2005. The property sold for $1.85 billion.

Fielding 5.8% of the search queries conducted in October in the United States, according to ComScore Networks, Ask lags far behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in market share. But it has gained ground on another Internet giant, Microsoft Corp., and pulled ahead of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.

Oakland-based Ask is "clearly not a Yahoo or a Google, but they're a very credible and important second source for a lot of consumers," said James Lamberti, senior vice president of ComScore Marketing Solutions.

The search engine has helped IAC's financial performance. Revenue in IAC's media and advertising businesses, which include Ask, Citysearch and Evite, grew 62% in the third quarter over the same period last year. IAC shares are up 27% this year, after closing at $35.94 on Friday.