Ask.com, the quest engine up to now identified for its butler mascot named Jeeves, has formally close down. Whilst Ask Jeeves used to be rebranded to Ask.com in 2006 by way of its new proprietor on the time, InterActiveCorp, this newest closure places an finish to the whole thing of the corporate’s seek industry.
“As IAC continues to sharpen its focal point, we’ve made the verdict to discontinue our seek industry, which contains Ask.com,” the observation at the web site reads. “After 25 years of answering the arena’s questions, Ask.com formally closed on Would possibly 1, 2026.”
The observation ended by way of thanking its thousands and thousands of customers, and pronouncing, “Jeeves’ spirit endures.” As unhappy as it’s to look a relic of the early Web days fade into obscurity, we nonetheless have Ask Jeeves to thank for why some customers nonetheless punch in complete questions when querying Google. On most sensible of that, Jeeves used to be constructed to supply detailed solutions in herbal language, which may have arguably acted as a precursor to as of late’s AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
Now, Ask.com joins the Web graveyard that incorporates competition like AltaVista, which close down in 2013. With Ask.com long past, along AIM and AOL dial-up products and services additionally sunsetting, we are in point of fact coming to an finish of a particular technology of the Web.
