According to Jim Lanzone ("SVP, Search Properties and Bloglines Addict"), Ask Jeeves' primary focus will be on building the Bloglines service to fulfill his vision for it, adding resources to their toolbox to get there faster and better.

There will be no short-term changes to Bloglines that weren't already on their roadmap. Over the long-term, Mark Fletcher will now, as general manager of Bloglines for AJ, Inc., be responsible for that roadmap in the future.

We will take our time determining the optimal business model for the service. We will continue to put the user experience first. As part of a bigger company there will be more options for Bloglines - from indirect monetization (through increased usage of our other brands) to direct if there is a model that makes sense for everyone.

In terms of integration with Ask Jeeves, one of their first priorities will be to pair the Bloglines team with their Teoma search technology team to build world-class blog search. Ask Jeeves will also help distribute Bloglines to a broader audience, from MyJeeves to the portal properties they own that collectively make Ask Jeeves the 7th ranked property on the Web.

The new beta with directions is live on .

Google Maps allows you to view maps, get driving directions, and search for local businesses and services.

I'm not sure if it works very well with Firefox...

Google announced two new updates to Google Image Search that further help users find the information they need.

First, Google Image Search now includes more than 1.1 billion images from around the world (previously: 800 millions). With a comprehensive index of images, users can quickly and easily find relevant images of both popular and obscure queries.

In addition, Google released a new feature that displays images from Google Image Search above Google web search results when they're relevant to users' search queries. When users search for queries such as , , torre eiffel, or inverno on the Google homepage, they may see relevant thumbnail images at the top of their search results marked "Image Results." When users click on the thumbnail images, they will be directed to the website that contains the original image. Users may also click on the "Image Results" link to see the complete Google Image Search results page for that query.

This new feature may only work for users in the USA (it doesn't work for now in France).