If you were one of the people who went online during the mid-90s, you didn’t rely solely on Google to find things across the wild west of the internet. Instead, you may have visited a distinguished gentleman wearing a suit named Jeeves to guide you in the chaotic land that was known as the “information superhighway.” The page, Ask Jeeves, wasn’t just an early search engine — it was also a precursor to the AI chatbots we know today with its goal of answering users’ questions through natural language processing. Unfortunately, its parent company, IAC, has announced that it’s changing its focus and will retire Ask.com, the successor to AskJeeves.com, after 30 years of service.
When you visit Ask.com, you can read the company’s final statement: “As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com. After 25 years of answering the world's questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026,” Ask writes. “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 original AskJeeves.com page still appears to be online, and you can still get some results of a limited scope.
