Ask’s parent company IAC posted $1B in losses largely because it wrote down the value of its search business. But, says the AP, this is actually good news for the online ad market (and not because a competitor is about to get out of the market)—because IAC didn’t do as badly as expected.

No, because it beat estimates by 2¢ per share, a nine-figure loss “offered the latest indication that the online advertising market is improving,” as the AP says. IAC investors seemed to agree, since it the stock jumped four percent after the results were posted.

In the most recent quarter IAC took a $991.9 million impairment charge to account for decreased projections for revenue and profit growth at IAC’s search properties, which include such Web sites as Ask.com and Dictionary.com.

However, there was some true good news in the report as well. Their search business (Ask, Citysearch, etc.) saw increased revenue (up 3%)—the first increase all year. And overall revenue was up, too—an increase of 5% to $367.2 million, beating analyst projections by 8%.

What do you think? Is this good news for the industry bad news for IAC, or good/bad news all around?