I was pretty sad to see Barry Diller throwing in the towel on Ask.com. Ask had a history of innovation: natural language search and Teoma which at one stage shaped up to be a Google-killing search engine. That innovative look-and-feel you like at Bing is very similar to Ask.com, even if you and I didn't use the site, it looks like Microsoft engineers spent a lot of time there. Ask also have set the search industry best practice on privacy and user data retention.

IAC has one of the best blog search functions under its Bloglines platform, (which I use as my defacto RSS reader, and have done for for the past 4 years or so as it handles mobile better than Google Reader), it would be a shame to see the Bloglines baby getting thrown out with the Ask.com bath water.

Ask has a big problem in a sale, there is only one potential buyer: Microsoft so they aren't likely to get anything like realisable value of the business. Ask currently has a niche particularly with busy middle-aged Mums - a nice niche to have if you play it right.

So why will it affect you? Less players,  means that there is less competition spurring less innovation and it is less attractive for start-ups to enter the market as their funders have less and less attractive exit strategy options.