From the very beginning Google staked out the high ground in terms of reaching the greatest number customers in the most relevant way and the efficacy of this seemingly simple approach can be seen in the company’s billion dollar earnings each quarter.

So where to now and what’s next has always been the question.

Google is active along two distinct but related strategy streams: 1. The company constantly strives to deliver content in new platforms (and we will discuss its recent deal in the mobile phone market in another post) and 2. It is busy partnering with some of the web’s biggest networks so that it can deliver targeted content to their members.

Its latest deal with IAC is very much along the lines of the second strategy. Over the years the Ask.com search engine evolved from the original (and first natural language query search engine) in 1996, under the name of AskJeeves.com to today where it has a user base of millions (though, obviously, it still ranks below Google, Yahoo! and MSN).

In terms of serving those customers with relevant adverts Ask.com had little choice but to partner with the unquestioned web leader in this.

For webmasters this is good news. Google Ads (or Google Adwords for those who use the ads to publicise their websites) will now be served in the Ask.com network and its dedicated local search engine traffic (the company has different sites for UK, Germany and most major European countries).

As long as you remember to use your Google Adwords judiciously, and we have discussed how to manage your PPC campaign in our SEO Advanced section, you only stand to benefit.