IAC/InterActiveCorp announced today that it would purchase 'Ask Jeeves,' the fourth largest Internet search engine site. The purchase price is reported to be $1.85 billion.

IAC/InterActiveCorp is headed by Barry Diller and already has holding such as online dating service Match.com and the travel site Expedia.com and the Home Shopping Network. IAC/InterActiveCorp will now be entering the lucrative but highly competitive search engine market dominated by Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

'Ask Jeeves' has always been a search engine with a slightly different twist. While most of its competitors are designed to find 'key words' in a search, Jeeves is designed to answer the user's question.

Diller told reporters, 'We believe that in the future (Ask Jeeves) has the potential to become one of the great brands on the Internet and beyond, and by beyond we mean in wireless, in the search for anything on any device.'

Diller did not say what, if any, changes he anticipated making on 'Ask Jeeves.' Regardless, at $1.85 billion, Jeeves has proved to be one expensive butler.