You may have noticed that Ask.com has unveiled their latest service, their search engine portal for kids. We did hear a while back about Ask.com’s new strategy on focusing on portals (e.g. women, kids, …), so this could be just the beginning of the new direction that Ask is taking to search. The portal is OK for what it is. Kids can search for movies, games, and … with this portal. They can also draw on the front page canvas. So it is entertaining. It’s too colorful, and will probably attract small kids. I also liked the school house for kids though I am not sure how many kids will give it a try. Here is just hoping that Ask will continue to innovate in the right places. Ask Kids is a good start.

So much for Ask.com being a threat to the top 3 engines. IAC just fired a bunch of their people, and it seems Ask will go back to its Jeeves day when it was all about questions and answers instead of a search engine. Ask.com had an OK technology behind it and had made numerous moves to cut into its bigger competitor’s shares, but it wasn’t any close to being a Google or Yahoo! killer. I wonder if this actually affects the Yahoo!, Microsoft deal as the industry is now different with only 3 major players in it rather than four. On a side note, I think Ask! will be a great destination for all women around the world.