Ask Jeeves Closes Just as AI Brings Back Chat-to-Search
IAC said Ask.com drew 245 million global visits over 25 years but never gained major market share against Google and other rivals.
- On Friday, May 1, 2026, parent company InterActiveCorp officially closed the Ask.com search engine after 25 years of operation, discontinuing its entire search business.
- Founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, Ask Jeeves pioneered natural language search, allowing users to pose full questions to a polite butler character instead of entering keywords.
- Media mogul Barry Diller led InterActiveCorp's 2005 acquisition of the engine for approximately $1.85 billion in stock; by early 2006, IAC rebranded the site to Ask.com and retired the Jeeves character.
- Following the closure, IAC stated it made the decision to "sharpen its focus" on other business areas, while the website posted a farewell message: "Every great search must come to an end."
- Ask Jeeves pioneered natural language search long before modern AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini existed, yet ultimately struggled against Google's PageRank algorithm, which delivered more relevant results and captured market dominance.
42 Articles
42 Articles
The Northern Echo
Iconic search engine shuts down after 30 years as users cry 'end of an era'
Iconic search engine Ask.com, formerly known as Ask Jeeves, has shut down after 30 years.
Once a pioneer in online information procurement, one increasingly lost the fight against Google and Co.
The end of Ask Jeeves reflects Britain’s diminished soft power
Before Google, there was Ask Jeeves, a website where curious internet users could put their queries to a cartoon valet. The valet, like the PG Wodehouse character that inspired his creation, was pinstriped, serene, and polite, if not quite as effective. Jeeves was eventually outmoded by Google, but his website, shorn of its mascot, persisted in the form of Ask.com. Now, almost 30 years after Ask Jeeves was founded, Ask.com has itself been shutte…
Popular 1990s internet search giant shuts down
Ask.com, one of the internet’s earliest search engine competitors, has shut down its search business after nearly 30 years, marking the latest contraction in a market dominated by a handful of major players.Parent company IAC said the move reflects a broader strategic shift away from legacy search operations."As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com," the company …
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