Ask Jeeves Permanently Closes After Nearly 30 Years Online
Updated
Updated · Mentalfloss · Jun 26
Ask Jeeves Permanently Closes After Nearly 30 Years Online
2 articles · Updated · Mentalfloss · Jun 26
Summary
Ask Jeeves shut down permanently last month, ending the run of a search engine that was once a major rival before Google’s rise in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The service was built around users asking questions to “Jeeves,” a valet character borrowed from P.G. Wodehouse, giving the engine a human-helper identity that stood out in the early web era.
Its closure is highlighted alongside other now-obsolete internet habits—dial-up connections, website guest books, MIDI background music and “under construction” GIFs—as markers of how radically the web has changed.