It’s tough to counter Network Effects unless you have a distinctive positioning (most of the times new innovation around gaps in incumbents products) and innovative marketing strategies.

IAC's Barry Diller Surrenders to Google, Ends Ask.com's Search Effort

Ask.com, the Internet search engine that media mogul Barry Diller acquired for $1.85 billion to compete with Google Inc., is cutting 130 engineering jobs and conceding much of its search business to competitors.

Leeds said that Google has become too powerful a competitor to justify Ask.com’s continued pursuit of those search users.

“It’s become this huge juggernaut of a company that we really thought we could compete against by innovating,” Leeds said in an interview. “We did a great job of holding our market share but it wasn’t enough to grow the way IAC had hoped we would grow when it bought us.”