“More than 16.3 billion explicit core searches were conducted in September, with Google Sites ranking first with 10.9 billion,” reports comScore. “Microsoft Sites ranked second with 2.6 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2 billion, Ask Network with 565 million (up 3 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 287 million.”

“In September, 69.4 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google (up 0.6 percentage points), while 25.1 percent of searches were powered by Bing,” the firm notes.

Here are the usual charts:

In August, Bing had gained market share and Google had lost a bit.

“The About.com acquisition is completely in line with IAC’s M&A strategy of acquiring, at disciplined valuations, companies that are complementary and synergistic with both our existing businesses and our areas of expertise,” said IAC CEO Greg Blatt. “We are extremely excited to bring these two businesses together; About.com’s content will differentiate and greatly increase the authority of Ask.com’s offerings, while Ask’s expertise in search technology and user experience will improve the discoverability of existing content on About.com.”

“The complementary nature of these two businesses will provide significant synergies going forward, and thus we expect that About.com will generate more profit as a part of Ask.com and IAC than it has been able to over the last few years,” added Blatt.

This could also be another way for Ask to get more content in front of Google users, as About.com content is often returned on the first page of results.

The About Group will join IAC’s Search And Applications reporting segment, where it will reside with Ask.com, Dictionary.com, Mindspark, Pronto and nRelate, which it acquired last month.

“This is a rare merger with true bilateral synergies,” said Joey Levin, CEO of IAC Search & Applications. “On the one hand, the Ask.com search and content business has generated exceptional revenue and profit growth by marketing and distributing a quality consumer search and Q&A experience, and About provides Ask with a tremendous amount of quality content to further enhance that experience and the credibility of the Ask brand.”

“On the other hand, About.com has created, and today continues to grow, a library of content which consumers love across a vast array of categories, and we can now market and distribute that content and the About brand through Ask and significantly increase traffic and profitability at About,” added Levin.

About CEO Darline Jean will report to Ask.com CEO Doug Leeds.

“nRelate’s platform helps over 30k publishers (bloggers and other media) increase traffic through targeted article recommendations within content,” a representative for Ask tells WebProNews. “Ask will apply its technology and expertise in search-based content discovery to create new products and marketing opportunities for content owners.”

According to Ask, nRelate’s platform has spurred 15% growth in impressions each month during the past year. With nRelate as part of Ask, the product will get answers from Ask’s Q&A platform integrated into the mix.

“Ask.com has been successfully building its Q&A business, yielding record growth and profits, allowing us to witness, firsthand, how users’ appetites for browsing and discovering content is only growing,” said Ask CEO Doug Leeds. “In addition to enhancing reader engagement, nRelate represents a promising native monetization model for publishers. We’re also excited to provide a platform that enables content creators to expose top-notch content to new audiences.”

“When it comes to content discovery products, publishers often get the short end of the stick with little control or customization,” said nRelate CEO Neil Mody, who will continue to run the product under Ask. “nRelate has been successful in part due to the flexibility of our products that allow publishers to design the product exactly how they want. The combination with Ask gives us access to new technologies and resources to fuel a wider range of products that both move the needle for publishers and improve the reader experience.”

Ask’s Q&A platform attracts 65 million unique U.S. visitors per month, according to the company. This acquisition should give Ask a nice shot at increasing those numbers.

I’m not sure that there was much doubt it was Google anyway, but after looking at Google’s results for “viagra” in light of its Penguin update, and comparing them to the results on other search engines, Ask’s SERP for the query was nearly identical, down to the specific flaws we pointed out about Google’s version. Google has corrected some of these flaws, and those same ones appear to have been corrected on Ask’s version as well.

A spokesperson for Ask told us, “A third-party partner powers core web search on Ask.com, but that information is not public for contractual reasons.”

“Ask’s search technology is focused on surfacing answers to questions rather than links, and it’s powered by a combination of technologies,” she said. “A third party search engine supplies the raw search feeds and we build our own algorithms on top of that, designed specifically to locate and extract answers to questions.”

Here’s what Ask says on its Editorial Guidelines page about its automated search results:

Ask.com delivers its primary search results using it’s proprietary search technology. These search results appear under the heading “Web Results”. Ask.com search technology uses sophisticated algorithms and Subject-Specific PopularitySM data to generate the most relevant and authoritative results on the Web.

Here’s what it says about its sponsored links:

Results appearing under the heading “Sponsored Web Results” or “Sponsored Web Result” are provided by Google, a third party provider of pay for performance search listings. Google generates highly relevant sponsored results by allowing advertisers to bid for placement in this area based on relevant keywords. These results, which are powered by Google’s advanced algorithms, are then distributed across the Internet to some of the world’s most popular and well-known Web sites, including Ask.

Here’s a screen cap of the “viagra” results before they were fixed:

You can just compare the results to the ones I talked about in this article and see the obvious similarities (which were not all duplicated on the other search engines).

By the way, if you ask Ask.com, “Does Google power Ask.com’s search results?” the top two results are articles that suggest that Google may power Ask.com’s search results. Of course, they also happen to be the same results Google gives you when you ask the same question in a Google query.

If you’re counting Bing and Yahoo together in those search market reports, you might as well be counting Google and Ask together as well. And AOL, of course.

“The app will help users in Austin cut through the noise to determine what the best panels, restaurants and parties are and will also help shape how Ask continues to integrate polling functionality into their site after Southby is over,” she says.

Features include (as described in an email from the company):

“Polling is one of the most engaging and straightforward Q&A formats on the Web – in fact, users in the Ask.com Q&A community continue to leverage the service as a polling mechanism,” says CEODoug Leeds. “SXSW is the perfect testing ground for us to play with mobile polling functionality, including filters like social connections and location, ultimately shaping how these features are integrated across both our flagship mobile app and site.”

We spoke with Ask at SXSW last year as well, when they launched their location-based Q&A app:

The new PollRoll app lets users send polls to friends and people nearby. It’s currently available in Apple’s iTunes Store. It’s only for iOS (i4.0 or higher).

“As we’ve all seen, Q&A sites are growing in popularity and there’s a reason for it; people are inherently curious AND want to share their expertise and answers/opinions,” Ask CTO Lisa Kavanaugh tells WebProNews. “By seeing how our 60 million users are interacting on Ask.com, people really do want to help others out by sharing their own knowledge and opinions on topics they care about.”

Ask is rolling out a new feature on its Category pages – the top categories of questions people ask on the site. Categories include: Arts, Cars & Transportation, Entertainment, Food & Drink, Politics & Government, Science, Sports & Recreation, Technology, etc. Ask will place the most asked and answered questions front and center.

Ask believes this will drive the community to become more social (answering, commenting and asking more questions). The Category pages themselves, Ask says, are designed to create appealing destinations people return to often.

“These pages have been reorganized to create a compelling destination for Ask.com users that are passionate about certain topics, prompting them to ask more questions, and compelling them to answer more meaningfully,” the company tells us. “These pages are more visually appealing and engaging because they’re showing what excites people most by pushing the most popular content front and center.”

“Ask.com is always studying and analyzing user behavior in the community and we proactively made this change,” a spokesperson says. “We’re exploring several new techniques to help keep users engaged on the site even longer and to keep Ask as their go-to destination when it comes to getting answers to their questions. We believe this change will help increase engagement on the category pages and increase content contribution in each category.”

Users will still be able to view recently asked questions, and can see them by scrolling down on each Category Page.

Ask says it gets twice as many visits from people who pose questions to each other, as opposed to the search box. That’s pretty obvious if you think about it. They’re going to return to see the answers. 60 million users is a lot of people. Keeping them coming back and finding a way to keep them engaged is key.

Ask’s fittingly come in the form of the top questions. They were also thoughtful enough to include a video about them.

“Because people come to Ask with specific questions we are uniquely able to understand what’s on consumers’ minds at any given moment, be it pop culture or politics,” said Doug Leeds, CEO, Ask.com. “For the first time, we’re looking at the year’s top questions to not only reflect on 2011, but also predict the newsmakers of 2012.”

Ask’s top celebrity search terms and questions for 2011 include:

1. Kim Kardashian: Was Kim Kardashian’s wedding fake?
2. Justin Bieber: Is Justin Bieber going to be a dad?
3. Lady Gaga: AreLady Gaga’s face implants real?
4. Beyonce: Did Beyonce fake a baby bump?
5. Kate Middleton: Who made Kate Middleton’s wedding dress?
6. Ashton Kutcher: Did Ashton cheat?
7. Michael Jackson: Was Michael Jackson murdered?
8. Selena Gomez: Is Selena Gomez pregnant?
9. Lindsay Lohan: Is Lindsay Lohan going to jail?
10. Charlie Sheen: What happened to Charlie Sheen’s teeth?

Top news search terms and questions included:

1. Earthquake in Japan: How big was the earthquake in Japan?
2. Hurricane Irene: What caused Hurricane Irene?
3. Steve Jobs: How much was Steve Jobs worth?
4. Royal Wedding: What did William whisper to Kate on the balcony?
5. Occupy Wall Street: Who started Occupy Wall Street?
6. iPhone: When will Apple release the iPhone 5?
7. Osama Bin Laden: Who killed Bin Laden?
8. Casey Anthony: Where is Casey Anthony hiding?
9. 10th Anniversary of September 11: What is happening on the 10th anniversary of 9/11?
10. AmyWinehouse: How did Amy Winehouse die?

Top political searches and questions included:

1. Barack Obama: Will Obama get re-elected?
2. Mitt Romney: What is Mitt Romney’s religion?
3. Sarah Palin: Is Sarah Palin running for president?
4. Michele Bachmann: Is Michele Bachmann crazy?
5. Anthony Weiner: Where can I find Anthony Weiner’s Twitter pics?
6. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Who was Arnold’s mistress?
7. Gay Marriage: Which states allow gay marriage?
8. Withdrawl from Iraq: When will the troops come home?
9. Iowa Caucus: When is the Iowa caucus?
10. Muammar Ghadafi: Who will lead Libya after Ghadafi?

Ask’s 2012 predictions list is as follows:

1. George Clooney wins his second AND third Academy Award
2. Dr. Oz surpasses Dr. Phil in ratings in a post-Oprah world
3. Green Bay Packers wins Super Bowl second year in a row
4. McDonald’s adds the McRib to its permanent menu
5. New York reclaims its spot as top the US travel destination from 2011 leader Orlando
6. Breakout star of 2011, Nicki Minaj, leapfrogs pop icon Katy Perry in album sales
7. Pippa jumps onto the list of top ten baby names of the year
8. Facebook goes public with world’s largest IPO
9. Tiger Woods retires from golf
And, finally…will the world end in 2012?

10. Spoiler alert! IT WON’T

And now on to the AOL side of things.

“AOL is one of the starting points for conversations on the Web and this year’s search results reflect that,” said Francis Lobo, Senior Vice President, AOL Search. “Using our data and insights tools, we captured the pulse of the 2011 online dialogue – from Casey Anthony and Charlie Sheen, to Ted Williams and Lady Gaga, our search results reveal the news, entertainment and pop culture memes that captivated consumers this year.”

News

1. Casey Anthony Trial
2. Gabrielle Giffords Shooting
3. Royal Wedding
4. Japan Earthquake
5. Arab Spring
6. Penn State Scandal
7. Osama bin Laden Death
8. Occupy Wall Street
9. Debt Ceiling Debate
10. European Debt Crisis

Celebrities

1. Charlie Sheen
2. Justin Bieber
3. Kate Middleton
4. Jennifer Aniston
5. Kim Kardashian
6. Tiger Woods
7. Lindsay Lohan
8. Amy Winehouse
9. Glenn Beck
10. Pippa Middleton

Memes

1. Ted Williams
2. Planking
3. Serene Branson
4. Anonymous
5. My Little Pony
6. Ancient Aliens
7. Nyan Cat
8. Rebecca Black Friday
9. Tiger Mom
10. Qwikster

Presidential Candidates

1. Barack Obama
2. Herman Cain
3. Michele Bachmann
4. Rick Perry
5. Ron Paul
6. Mitt Romney
7. Newt Gingrich
8. Rick Santorum
9. Jon Huntsman
10. Gary Johnson

“How…”

1. How can I pay off my credit card?
2. How tall is Katy Perry?
3. How can I stop snoring?
4. How did Valentine’s Day start?
5. How do you lock your scroll bar?
6. How much is my jewelry worth?
7. How many ounces in a gallon?
8. How do I change my AOL password?
9. How much should I weigh?
10. How did Punxsutawney Phil get his name?

“Is…”

1. Is Whitney Houston pregnant?
2. Is the iPhone 3GS free?
3. Is Dolly Parton her real name?
4. Is Cancun safe for tourists?
5. Is Roseanne Barr a nut farmer?
6. Is heartburn a sign of pregnancy?
7. Is shingles contagious?
8. Is Facebook going to charge?
9. Is there life after death?
10. Is rosemary good for stretch marks?

“Why…”

1. Why did Dick leave Big Brother?
2. Why did the original Becky leave Roseanne?
3. Why did William and Kate split in 2007?
4. Why did Paul Ryan found the Young Guns program?
5. Why did the chicken cross the road?
6. Why did Glenn Beck leave Fox?
7. Why did Ricky Gervais quit Twitter?
8. Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
9. Why did my hair thin after giving birth?
10. Why did Jerry Lewis leave MDA?

I’m going to look at results for the same query across each one just as a comparison. I’ll use the classic “level 4 brain cancer” query that we’ve looked at on Google various times throughout the content farm/Panda update discussion this year.

We first used this example to show where non-authoritative information was being surfaced for important health-related queries in Google, prior to the launch of the Panda update.

Ask Jeeves

Ask Jeeves was founded in 1996, and eventually became Ask.com, although it’s still Ask Jeeves in the UK. While there was always an emphasis on Q&A, this is very much the case these days. Here’s what it looks like:

The results:

Alta Vista

AltaVista was founded in 1995. Eventually it was purchased by Overture, which was taken over by Yahoo. Last year, Yahoo indicated that it would be shutting AltaVista down, but so far it is still live, delivering Yahoo results with an AltaVista logo. Here’s what it looks like:

The results:

AlltheWeb

AlltheWeb came out in 1999. It was eventually bought up by Overture, which was taken over by Yahoo. It was just earlier this year that Yahoo simply started directing it to search.yahoo.com.

Excite

Excite was founded in 1994. Ten years later it was acquired by Ask Jeeves. Now it’s owned by IAC, which also owns Ask. Here’s what it looks like today:

The results:

Lycos

Lycos was founded in 1994. In 2000, it merged with Terra Networks to become Terra Lycos. In 2004, Lycos was sold to Daum Communications. In 2010, it was sold to Ybrant Digital. Here’s what it looks like these days:

The results:

HotBot

HotBot was launched in 1996 by Wired Magazine, and is now owned by Lycos. Here’s what it looks like these days:

The results:

Infoseek

Infoseek was founded in 1994, and was eventually bought by The Walt Disney Company. It then was rolled into Go.com, but has been replaced by Yahoo’s search, which is interesting, considering that Yahoo’s search has been replaced by Bing. Here’s what it looks like:

The results (they simply redirect to Yahoo search results):

WebCrawler

WebCrawler is a metasearch engine. It launched in 1994, was bought by AOL in 1995, and sold to Excite in 1997. Infospace acquired it in 2001. Currently its results pull from Google, Yahoo and Bing. This was actually my go to search engine before discovering Google. That seems so long ago. Here’s what it looks like today:

The results:

DogPile

DogPile is similar to WebCrawler, and is also now owned by Infospace. It was launched in 1996. Here’s what it looks like today:

The results:

Mamma.com

Mamma.com, a metasearch engine, was launched in 1996. The company eventually purchased Copernic, and changed its name to Copernic Inc. In 2009, Copernic sold Mamma.com to Empresario.

There’s currently a message on the Mamma.com saying that a new version is on the way. Here’s what it currently looks like:

The Results:

The moral of the story: a lot of search engines think eHow has the best result for “level 4 brain cancer”. That includes Bing and Yahoo. Google is going with Harvard’s MGH Brain Tumor Center for its top result for the query. Blekko is going with Cancer.org. DuckDuckGo is going with medical-answers.org.

When was the last time you used any of these old school search engines? Let us know in the comments.

The announcement itself is that Ask.com has launched its human-powered Q&A service “Ask People” to all of those users. This has only been available to a portion of them in limited beta until now.

Ask has also launched a redesign to “deeply infuse user-generated answers across the site and within search results”

“The redesign accelerates Ask.com’s transition from pure algorithmic Web search to a Q&A site and mobile service fueled by the ability to search the Web for answers or connect with other users for personal opinions,” the company says.

“Ask’s approach to Q&A is unique – we embrace questions where we can deliver answers in milliseconds from content on the Web, but also deeply appreciate that crawlers can’t replace human experience,” said CEO Doug Leeds. “Our limited exposure beta period allowed us to learn where humans and search best intersect as mechanisms for getting credible answers to the millions of questions – fact-based or subjective – we receive each day. Today’s launch combines the best of these two worlds into a single, comprehensive Q&A destination.”

Read our recent interview with Leeds here.

The new Ask Q&A experience is a valuable from the web, as well as from iOS and Android. Last week, Ask launched its new Android app, following up its iPhone app which surpassed a million downloads.

“We have placed a big bet on mobile as part of our growth strategy, and it’s paying off with four times the answer rate as our site users,” said Jason Rupp, senior director of product management at Ask.com. “Over the last three quarters there was triple digit growth in traffic from smartphones to the Ask.com mobile site, and 60 percent of that was Android. To win in mobile, you must win on Android.”

That emphasis on mobile has become quite evident. Here’s an interview we did with the company at SXSW a few months back, discussing its Ask Around location-based Q&A app:

Features of the new Android app include:

• Voice to text: Simply ask questions, no typing required.
• Web combined with real people: Get web results as well as top-voted published answers from other Ask.com users in milliseconds.
• Send a question to a real user: Want another opinion? Route the question to a live person in the Ask.com Q&A community, or browse and respond to other users’ questions.
• Set it and forget it: Push notifications alert you to when a new answer has arrived.
• Personalize Q&A by interest: New for Android users, the app allows you to filter Q&A by topics that match your profile.
• Follow feature: Follow users who provide interesting answers, and personalize your Q&A experience with content from these connections.

Last week, Ask announced some new partnerships it is using to help bolster its “Smart Answers”.