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The Teoma technology at the heart of the Ask.com search engine will be back with the new name of ExpertRank, and Teoma.com redirects to Ask.com now.

Actually, Teoma never really went anywhere, but why pass up a cheap Arnie reference? And according to the redirected site, Teoma means "expert" in Gaelic.

The Teoma brand name follows the Jeeves butler into retirement. Ask.com has coordinated this move along with the Ask relaunch to coincide with the opening of SES New York 2006, where IAC CEO Barry Diller will deliver the opening keynote address.

The Ask.com team noted in the company blog the news about the brand shift. They and IAC have moved to make the Ask brand the one that receives the big push from marketing efforts.

A brief history of Teoma and its focus going forward were detailed in the post:

...when Teoma was acquired back in late 2001, it was a pioneering, 7-person shop that had developed some next-generation algorithms and a promising search engine. Since then, it has served as the heart of the technology underlying Ask Jeeves, and has been the foundation of our resurgence in search. The algorithm, one way we uniquely determine relevance, will be known as ExpertRank going forward.

We have exponentially grown the team, now known as the Ask Search Technology team, over the years. They are still located in central New Jersey, near Rutgers, where Teoma was founded. (Though some AST employees also work in our Campbell, CA office, as Matt Cutts and Microsoft's incessantly cold-calling recruiters also know.) So, the spirit of the original Teoma not only lives on, it is very much still a part of what we do.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.