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.”

There is projection of a big shakeup coming up. If the rumor does turn out to be true and Ask does go ahead with the changes, then a downsizing measure could make about a 100 layoffs inevitable. The layoffs are predicted for April and there aren't any sacred cows as well.

This fallout could be a bad one for Ask's engineers, but perhaps good news for IAC. One of the favorite public statements of Barry Diller, CEO, IAC, is, while Ask has a great technology, it has done a bad job of marketing it. Ask and others like Yahoo have spent quite a lot of money to catch up with Goliath Google, but in vain. Ask's shareholders being a witness to these developments would have thought it to be best if Ask had taken this step much earlier.

Recently, Ask has seen some good growth in the number of people querying the engine, see: Ask.com Grows 20% In January.

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