Over the past weeks, a lot has been brewing at Ask.com. Rumours and speculations have been doing the rounds for sometime now. However, the most lingering doubts were regarding Ask opting for Google powered results in its search results. But we wanted to know the trust, the real thing, so we went ahead and had a conference call with Ask.com spokesman and VP, Nicholas Graham.

This is what he had to say about the bouncing rumours:

Yesterday, Ask laid off 8% of its search related workforce, amounting to about 40 jobs and further the Ask CEO Jim Safka announced that it will now focus exclusively on women. Now in the current updates, it seems that Ask is already serving limited tests of Google powered results in its search results.

Yesterday we had mentioned that Ask has announced layoffs. Further there were speculations that, Ask might be thinking about abandoning or selling its "Teoma search engine" in favor of Google. And despite yesterday's reports which suggested that they'll keep their search engine and Teoma, however today it seems to be in doubt. According to a Reuters report, Ask.com will eliminate about 8% of its work force, amounting to about 40 jobs. It seems that inspite of its goal to improve its search portal and mobile initiatives, this move seems to be taken more out of a need, that anything else.

Rumors are rife that Ask could be considering handing over its search operations to Google and consequently downsizing it's engineering team, reports Silicon Alley Insider.

Ask might be thinking about abandoning or selling its “Teoma search engine” in favor of Google, “There is indeed a big shakeup coming. A new Ask. Some think a reduction in workforce is likely”, informs an unnamed inside source. “There are no sacred cows, Teoma may be sold or simply abandoned which is hundreds of engineers who work on the core search engine, in place of just using Google's search with our special brand of user interface.”

Apparently, Ask.com now displays five sponsored results for several keyword searches, making the organic results appear below the fold, observes Barry. This is quite similar to the organic results that appeared below the fold before Jeeves was dropped.

Reportedly, the search for the keyword "mp3 players" on Internet Explorer, shows five sponsored results, see below:

However, when searched on either Safari or Firefox, it is likely to yield only three ads to feature at the top, see below:

Search engine industry is awesomely competitive, as all search engines, big an small are always on a roll to enhance an average user's experience. Of late Ask has turned out quite a few fresh tweaks to its services. During late last year it was the Ask Eraser, then there was the Voice Activated Mobile Directions Feature!, Customized Ask.Com Homepage and the recently launched BigNews, all of these efforts did translate into success for the company.

The comScore data released today shows that Ask.com is making great leaps in the search queries. The data analyses further tell that Ask has seen more growth than Google, MSN, or Yahoo in the last month (January 2008) than compared to the prior month's volume.

Ask has just launched a news search service called BigNews, "Ask BigNews is a search and browse service that helps you find and track the most important and most talked about stories in the news." The service is similar to Google News or Yahoo! News services.

Ask's BigNews makes use of the 'BigFactor' to find the best stories to follow. The BigFactor has four key dimensions:

Former Google executive, Cesar Mascaraque has been hired by Ask.com as its new European managing director starting from 4 February 2008.

Mascaraque will be responsible for the European operations for Ask.com. His previous experience at Google as head of strategic partnerships and business development for southern Europe makes him an ideal choice for the post. Before joining Google, Mascaraque was also the co-founder and director for an online asset finance platform Finexia.com.

Ask.com has launched a new facility, in case you don't like the backgrounds already available on Ask.com. The new feature lets you upload any image of your choice, a family snap or your company logo perhaps.

This move comes as an upgrade to Ask3D, launched last year. The feedback from Ask users lead the product management team to develop and extend this facility, "..many skins users requested upgrades-the most-requested one being the ability to allow them to upload their own images. Today, we're happy to announce just that upgrade," said Erik Collier, Director of Product Management,Ask.com