“The big steps we’ve been out and after for the last several years in search [have] not been achieved and you’d have to say that the future is speculative. We’ve been asked a lot whether we’re open to consolidating transactions in the area of search. The answer is yes and it’s unlikely that we would be the consolidator.”

– IAC CEO Barry Diller

If Barry Diller is looking for somewhere to unload IAC’s Ask.com search engine, he’d be wise to consider Microsoft–if he doesn’t have that in mind already. Analysts reflecting on Diller’s recent remarks about Ask’s “speculative future” say Microsoft is the most likely buyer if IAC (IACI) is truly serious about dumping the little search engine that couldn’t.

Ask, analysts note, has about four percent of the domestic search market, which would give Microsoft (MSFT) a nice little bump up from the 9.4 percent market share it currently claims. And it certainly wouldn’t hurt that a Microsoft acquisition would undoubtedly mean the end of Ask’s relationship with Google (GOOG).

“Right now, Microsoft wants share so they could pick up those points from Ask,” Colin Gillis, an analyst at Brigantine Advisors, told Reuters. “Plus it has a double impact since Google powers Ask’s paid search.”

And speculative is an apt word for it. With just four percent share of the search market, according to comScore (SCOR), Ask has long been the inveterate fourth-place player in a contest increasingly dominated by Google (GOOG). And though it has certainly tried, Ask just can’t seem to make any headway. It isn’t fighting a losing battle, it’s fighting one that was lost long ago. No surprise then to hear that Diller is tiring of it.

Asked during an earnings call Tuesday if IAC (IACI) would consider selling the search engine, Diller said it most certainly would. “We’ve been asked a lot whether we’re open to consolidating transactions in the area of search. The answer is yes,” he said. “And, it is unlikely that we would be the consolidator.”

Obviously.

So Ask is for sale. The question now is who wants it?

The new Ask is faster than its predecessor. Its search results are more relevant and sharpened by structured data (TV listings, etc.) where available. And the little search engine that couldn’t is still using semantic technology to interpret and answer questions put to it by users. “To call it an all-new Ask is wrong; it’s an evolution of Ask,” said Barry Diller, CEO of Ask parent IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI). “I think it’s going to help us primarily in [visitor] retention and frequency. That is really its goal.”

But while it might appeal to some, Ask’s latest iteration isn’t likely to make much of a difference in the brutish battle for search engine market share. But then Ask doesn’t need much, does it? The search business is enormously profitable. As Microsoft’s (MSFT) Don Dodge once noted, every market-share point in search is worth a billion dollars or more. So if Ask manages to boost its share of all searches even slightly, it’s a success. “Search revenue for us is very profitable and it’s certainly growing,” said Diller. “Does it matter whether or not we take big chunks of…market share? No. Would we like and hope to? Yes.”

This year’s D conference had its share of great lines–tired ones, too (we’re all clear on the subject of Facebook and information sharing, right?). Here’s a selection of the former…

Guys like us avoid monopolies. We like to compete.”

–Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates

AOL is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Web. We don’t get no respect.”

–Jeff Bewkes, president and CEO, Time Warner (TWX)

I will probably never be a CEO again.”

–Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Jerry Yang states the obvious

It’s a company that creates technology.”

–Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answers the question, “What is a technology company?”

Did you have anything to do with the New York Post’s endorsement of Obama?”

–Walt Mossberg to Rupert Murdoch

“Yeah.”

–Rupert Murdoch to Walt Mossberg

I didn’t leave business school to go bankrupt.”

–Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on his first days at Microsoft

You would have loved Windows 1.0, Walt. You would have LOVED it.”

–Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Microsoft’s philosophy is to ‘do things better.’ And Vista has given us lots of opportunity to do that.”

–Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates

Microsoft Bob? All Bill’s idea.”

–Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft Corp.

It makes revolutionary desserts you never could have imagined!”

–Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recalls the slogan he used to market Coldsnap Freezer Dessert Makers at Proctor & Gamble

C’mon, you CAN’T be happy with the way this Vista thing has gone.”

–Walt Mossberg to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

In some ways the Web is the most important book in the world.”

–Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com (AMZN)

We try to stick to violence against small animals.”

– Activision (ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick on violence in the company’s games.

I have to determine whether the joy of craplets is worth preserving.”

–Sony (SNE) CEO Howard Stringer on craplets on Sony PCs

Facebook is all about information and helping people share it.”

–Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg demonstrate “I-Have-Nothing -To-Say-And-I-Am-Saying-It” public relations.

‘Sharing information?’ Isn’t that a drinking game? Every time Mark Zuckerberg says it you have to drink.”

–Kara Swisher

Page got one of the two chairs and Schmidt wound up on the floor.”

–Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on meeting with Google’s (GOOG) Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt in his spartan apartment.

All lives are equal.”

–Melinda Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on D6 Highlights

Betamax 2.”

–Sony CEO Howard Stringer on what his epitaph would have been had Sony lost the DVD format war.

If we were any more successful, we’d be bankrupt.”

–Sony CEO Howard Stringer on the success of Sony’s LCD business.

Hollywood is a community that’s so inbred, it’s a wonder the children have any teeth.”

–Barry Diller, chairman and CEO, IAC (IACI)

People loved their horses, too. But you don’t keep riding your horse to work just because you love it.”

–Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the difference between physical books and digital ones

I could take him.”

–Dell (DELL) CEO Michael Dell on his chances of success in a brawl with Apple CEO Steve Jobs

It’s amazing how elastic the human brain turns out to be.”

–DEKA Research founder Dean Kamen

It’s like Baby Mama, with me as the mama.”

–Intellectual Ventures founder Nathan Myhrvold explains the company’s “invest in inventions” business model.

Windows 95 was a nice milestone.”

–Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on one of the high points of his career

I won’t ever stop until you’re either the biggest thing around, or you’re dead.”

–Kara Swisher on her relentless coverage of Facebook

We think they’re fantastic … But you don’t want anyone to be a monopoly.”

–Rupert Murdoch on Google

Coming from Google, you don’t exactly spend a lot of time at Microsoft.”

–Facebook COO and former Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google Sheryl Sandberg

We’re trying to outbook the book.”

–Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Kindle.

There go the dairy ads.”

– Walt Mossberg on 23andMe’s discovery that colleague Kara Swisher is lactose intolerant

We didn’t buy Alaska to save a couple of elk.”

–News Corporation (NWS) Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch on Alaska as a solution to the current fuel crisis.

Where’s Rupert’s elk-despising gene?”

–Kara Swisher while reviewing Murdoch’s genotype

That’s not serious … he just wants to make himself a few hundred million dollars …”

–Rupert Murdoch on Carl Icahn’s proxy fight for Yahoo

You’re the chairman of the FCC. How did you allow this to happen?”

–Walt Mossberg grills FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on the lousy broadband situation in the states.

“We have certainly not bitten an inch out of the hide of Google,” Diller said earlier this week. “I’ve been daunted by the progress of that. … The challenge of the year … is to get people to try [Ask], experiment with it and then adopt it.”

With that in mind, Diller’s making some changes. Ask.com Chief Executive Officer Jim Lanzone–who claimed the CEO spot in April 2006 when Steve Berkowitz took a job at Microsoft–is leaving the company in a management shake-upr that will see former Match.com CEO Jim Safka take his place.

News of the leadership change comes as Ask parent InterActiveCorp prepares to spin off its HSN (Home Shopping Network), Ticketmaster, Interval International and LendingTree properties. “These changes are intended to strengthen and streamline the operating structure at IAC, both leading up to our intended spin-offs, and beyond,” said IAC CEO Diller.

Well, we’ll have to see about that. Certainly, Safka seems like a worthy candidate for the job. As CEO of Match.com from 2004 to 2006, he grew the site’s membership and revenues substantially. That said, Lanzone is also a very smart guy. If he wasn’t able to turn Ask into a legitimate player in the search market, one wonders if anyone can.