I don't know how I would feel right now if I worked at Ask.com.

It seems the CEO who is credited with the big turnaround at Ask.com, Steve Berkowitz, has decided to jump ship and head over to Microsoft. His new position is Senior Vice President of the Platforms and Services Division.

If I was an Asker I would hope that Steve left because he felt his work was done, not because he sees a gloomy future for Ask - but you would have to think that if he was confident that Ask was going to be a winner in the "search wars" he would have stuck around.

Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Watch says Microsoft should have gone beyond acquiring Berkowitz and bought Ask.com altogether. An interesting thought.

All I do know is that this is not going to help Ask's position as the red-headed stepchild of search - even if they have those cool preview binoculars...