Ask.com, one of the leading search engines builds on the history of online search innovation with powerful new technologies and user experience enhancements. Ask.com, an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq:IACI), today unveiled a new version of its site that includes significant relevance, user interface, and speed enhancements.

Before I go out and feed the geese on my pond in Harrods Creek, I wanted to offer several unsolicited comments about Microsoft, Cuil, and search.

The new search engine Cuil (Cuil.com) will surely make many headlines. Cuil aims to be the most challenging competition to Google and provides new look to search engines. The news about Cuil is big today, but it will become bigger as in the upcoming days bloggers will start writing making comparisons between Cuild and Google, Yahoo and MSN. It will be interesting to see how Cuil will monetize and how advertisers will react to Cuil.

Can't buy the company? Can't buy the search technology? Well, how about buying the talent? Wednesday Microsoft placed a full-page ad for "search jobs" in (gasp!) an honest-to-goodness hard copy paper, The San Jose Mercury-News. Despite the ubiquity of the San Francisco Chronicle, for Silicon Valley, the Merc is the paper.

Carl Icahn may not take the hint. But yesterday Yahoo! said any potential deal with Microsoft was off, and Yahoo! announced a non-exclusive ad deal with Google, which should increase Yahoo!'s revenue.

As I had posted couple of days back to watch out for a MSN toolbar update soon, and here it is, a new version of MSN Toolbar is available.

With Microsoft recently issuing a statement, on Yahoo deal "...that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo! ...".

Microsoft has launched a service called "Live Search Cashback." The program is linked to Microsoft's acquisition of Jellyfish.com last year, a cash back site similar to eBates, where rebates of varying percentages are given for purchases clicked-through from the site. This probably explains why the cash back portion of Jellyfish has been down of late and is down again today.

comScore's Ranking of the Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for April indicates that for the first time, Google has overtaken Yahoo as the most-visited website in the U.S.

There is an article on CNET that speculates that Microsoft may be interested in acquiring Powerset search engine, which is close to publicly rolling out its semantic search engine. The early reviews of the Powerset semantic search have been favorable.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 saying "our ongoing innovation in search, ads, and apps helped drive healthy growth globally across our product lines, yielding another strong quarter for Google," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.

Yahoo, after years of battling Internet rival Google for online advertising, said itwould launch a limited test of Google's AdSense for Search service.