Ask.com senior VP and general manager Jim Lanzone has been tapped to take over the big office at the search engine now that erstwhile CEO Steve Berkowitz has bailed out of the company in favor of David Cole’s old MSN position at Microsoft.

IAC/InterActiveCorp announced the CEO’s job, vacated Friday by Berkowitz, has been filled. The company moved quickly to fill the space abruptly left by Berkowitz’s departure.

“Jim is one of the most respected leaders in the search industry, having been principally responsible every day for the turnaround of the Ask product and brand over the past several years,” Doug Lebda, IAC President and COO, said in a statement.

That turnaround has slowly moved the Ask.com search engine into being a more respectable destination for searchers. The company dumped their long-time Jeeves the butler icon to better capitalize on the Ask name on its own.

Presently, Ask.com holds about six percent of the search market, trailing Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Compared to past years when the site earned little trust from searchers, it’s an improvement for the company.

Lanzone will be expected by Lebda and IAC’s top man Barry Diller to continue the upward progress seen by Ask.com over the past year. Diller and IAC have placed the Ask functionality throughout the varied IAC online properties, like CitySearch, Ticketmaster, and BlogLines.

“We have a lot of momentum behind Ask.com,” said Lanzone. “My goal is to keep pushing us forward down the path we’re on.”

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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.