Ask not for whom the bell tolls: Pioneering early internet search engine named after PG Wodehouse's legendary Jeeves takes its leave

Published: 21:42, 2 May 2026 | Updated: 21:53, 2 May 2026 For a generation of early internet users, it was the most courteous corner of the web - a place where questions were asked in plain English and answered, at least in theory, by a genial digital butler.  Now Ask.com, once the home of Ask Jeeves, appears to be slipping quietly into history - its homepage carrying a farewell message that signals the end of one of the internet's most recognisable pioneers.  A statement published on Friday on the site by InterActiveCorp (IAC), which has owned Ask.com since 2005, reads: 'Every great search must come to an end.  '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. '"To the millions who asked..." We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers and teams who built and supported Ask over 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 trust.  The site's demise follows in the footsteps of past internet juggernauts to have faded, including sites and icons such as Grooveshark, Microsoft's Clippy and Hotmail. Users of Ask Jeeves were invited to type full questions, not just keywords, and received an outwardly human-like answer Long before the dominance of Google, and now uncontrollable supremacy of AI generative-text tools such as ChatGPT, Ask Jeeves formed part of a first wave of search engines that tried to make sense of the burgeoning online world. The site - with its suited, dapper avatar - was created in June 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California, and launched to the public a year later.  Alongside rivals such as MSN Search (now Bing) and Yahoo!, it offered a gateway into the digital world, with the added personality of a seemingly knowledgeable human being.  Users were invited to type full questions, not just keywords, and received an outwardly human-like answer.  It gained such traction it was later sold for $1.85billion (then £975million) by IAC and medial mogul Barry Diller.  The site's mascot Jeeves was lifted from the stories of English author PG Wodehouse, notably the short story Carry on Jeeves (1925), in which he takes on the role of the faultless valet to the hapless Bertie Wooster.  Screen adaptations have included an ITV series starring Stephen Fry as Jeeves and long-time comedy partner Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster. Jeeves, the ultimate 'gentleman's gentleman', embodied the precise qualities a bewildered early internet user might hope for - discretion, clarity and the ability to conjure answers from sometimes chaotic requests.  Now Ask.com, once the home of Ask Jeeves, appears to be slipping quietly into history, its homepage carrying a farewell message that signals the end of one of the internets most recognisable pioneers Ask Jeeves site became one of the most visited sites in the 1990s and 2000s, attracting more than 1million queries a day within just two years. The owners also organised for a huge Jeeves balloon to float down Central Park West during the annual Macy's Thanksgiving parade in New York in 1999. However, after Google started to move away from offering only blue links to images, news, maps and shopping, Ask Jeeves site began to answer questions with answer boxes, delivering faster and more accurate results.   The site dropped the name 'Jeeves' and was rebranded to Ask.com in 2006, in a what was seen as a bid to appear more contemporary and overtake Yahoo Answers as a Q&A site. It then in 2010 focused completely on a Q&A approach - but rivals such as Google, Yahoo Answers and Quora have since established dominance. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.