And then there are two?

Well we started 2008 with these top (by far) four:
Google
MSN
Yahoo!
Ask
No longer.
Ask quit the wide search business today. See their stuff here and commentary here and here and here. They laid off 8% of their workforce (or 40 real blood and guts people) including the beloved Gary Price, who is, as usual thoughtful, gentlemanly and philosophical here. All the best Gary. You’re going to do great.
Rumours are that Yahoo! and MS are deep in ‘secret’ talks (and it seems likely). Yahoo! continues to release new products and announcements at such a pace that it seems that Yahoos just want them to see the light of day for a brief moment of sunshine. If I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with a neat new product, I’d induce in this environment too.
Anyway, are we heading to Spring conference season with two left standing – MicroHoo and Google?
Is LibraryLand finally ready to offer a compelling alternative to ad supported search?
Stephen