After 30 years of helping internet surfers find answers on the world wide web, Jeeves and his successor Ask.com have now thrown in the towel.
“To the millions who asked … We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust. Jeeves’ spirit endures.”
The answer engine shuttered its doors on May 1.
Unveiled in 1996, Jeeves was modeled after the clever butler from a popular P.G. Wodehouse series, according to The New York Times. But it wasn’t quite as consistently good as Yahoo and Google. In 2005, InterActive Corp. bought it for more than $1 billion and rebranded as Ask.com.
The Times said Ask.com was the first to introduce hyperlocal map overlays to searches and embed webpage thumbnails. But it still struggled to gain traction. This year, it finally gave up.