Lycos is trying to pull itself back into your Web browser by purchasing Ask Jeeves search technology. Wait a minute here. Who cares? With Google and occasionally Yahoo! being all the rage, Ask Jeeves never really offered me anything that I felt was worthwhile.

In a bid to beef up its search capability, Lycos Inc. said Wednesday it has bought search technology from Ask Jeeves.

“The Lycos brand is known for search and we’re committed to re-establishing Lycos.com as a leading search site,” Adam Soroca, Lycos general manager of search services, said in a statement. Terms for the acquisition of the search algorithms were not disclosed.

Previously, Lycos used search technologies acquired from Yahoo’s Inktomi unit. The Lycos operation was purchased in October by Daum Communications Corp. of Korea.

Ask Jeeves noted that it has also syndicated its search and advertising technologies to InfoSpace, BellSouth, among others.

Some Lycos Web sites had been using Ask Jeeves search technologies before Wednesday’s announcement, Soroca said.