Question-answering search engine technology company Ask Jeeves has acquired up-and-coming search technology company Teoma. Teoma has been touted as one of the only credible challengers to Google on the current search tech horizon.

For some time now, we've lamented the fact that Ask Jeeves didn't take advantage of its inflated stock price and brand recognition earlier on to make key technology acquisitions, given that the promise of Jeeves' natural language question-answering method wasn't matched by its weak underlying technology. In acquiring Teoma, which addresses similar "popularity ranking" methodologies as Google, Jeeves would appear to be conceding that its earlier acquisition of Direct Hit, a technology that supposedly tracked user behavior to measure a site's popularity, was a bust. (Jeeves acquired Direct Hit for $504 million in an all-stock transaction. At today's stock valuation, this would be equivalent only to about $5-10 million, however.) On the face of it, Teoma offers considerably more sophistication than Direct Hit.

The flipside of the economic downturn that has led to Jeeves' currently-depressed stock price is that the startup companies it might like to acquire don't command much of a premium, and will face a tough road gaining needed funding in this economic environment, making them much cheaper to acquire. Jeeves also has considerable cash on hand to use as an alternative to its now-sub-$1 stock.

AKAMAI CO-FOUNDER KILLED

The terrorist attack has touched people from every walk of life, and the technology sector has proven no exception. Amongst the sad list of dead passengers on hijacked flights are Akamai co-founder Daniel. C. Lewin and MRV Communications CFO Edmund Glazer.

"AND NOW... THIS"

Media critic Neil Postman has argued that our collectively short attention spans and poor grasp of world events are exacerbated by the tendency of news anchors to seamlessly move from describing tragic deaths into segments focusing on trivial items like a new exhibit at the local zoo, stopping for only the briefest of ("and now... this") segues. Yet this seems inappropriate as a description of today's broadcast news reality - extended coverage and sustained analysis from experts are widely available today on all-news channels. More to the point, when faced with the need to balance tragedy with everyday life, is there really any right way? "Everyday life" in a democracy is what most of us have fought for and striven to preserve. No matter how great the tragedy, it's healthy to return to the everyday. And maybe what seems trivial (a new exhibit at the local zoo, a local high school track meet) isn't really as trivial as you might think. And now... this:

YAHOO! HAS GOLF HANDICAP TRACKER

Golf nuts will like this automated Yahoo! service for tracking your golf handicap. Not only do they have an extensive list of US courses on file, but for international users and players whose course is unlisted, there is a feature that allows you to enter all pertinent info about your course (using a scorecard, for example) for the purposes of the handicap calculations. What will they think of next?