Barry Diller's proposed $1.85 billion acquisition of search engine Ask Jeeves is a significant deal -- but not for the reasons you think. Over at Tech Central Station, "Barry Diller's Search for Meaning" looks at the ways that Barry Diller can use his various Internet properties to squeeze value out of Ask Jeeves. To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, "Ask not what search can do for you... Ask what you can do for search." It's a theme that the Financial Times developed earlier in the week, too. Paid Content teases out a key point that Barry Diller made in the FT interview:

"Many people think one of our considerations [in buying Ask Jeeves] was to help our current business. But they are not traffic starved. We are motivated by being able to help Ask Jeeves grow, using our travel business and all our other businesses."