Technology Ask.com Shuts Down After Nearly 30 Years, Ending the Ask Jeeves Era

lokamoka820

lokamoka820

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https://www.ghacks.net/2026/05/05/ask-com-shuts-down-after-nearly-30-years-ending-the-ask-jeeves-era/
Ask.com has shut down after nearly 30 years of operation. The parent company, IAC, confirmed the closure in a message posted on the site, explaining that it is shifting its focus and ending the search business entirely. The platform was launched in 1996 as Ask Jeeves and rebranded to Ask.com in 2006.

The farewell message on the site states: "To the millions who asked... We are deeply grateful to the engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to all of you, the users who relied on us for answers in a changing world - thank you for your curiosity, loyalty, and trust. Jeeves' spirit lives on."
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Marko :) said:
I remember Ask by their useless and terrible toolbar I got installed when I was a kid because it was bundled with some software. I hated all toolbars equally, but Ask one deserves special place in hell.
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Oh come on! There were worse things during those days; do you recall the Purple Gorrilla attempt at AI/help assistant? Or the dancing baby? And Clippy! Fcking Clippy!

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In hinsight I don't understand why ask.com was so annoying? I also disliked it much more than Google and Yahoo. The results of Google somehow were better than Yahoo and Ask and the Google ads were not as annoying as Yahoo and Ask in my memory.

I do recall using AdFender (I searched for it and it still seems to exist) before using uBo.
 
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Zero Knowledge said:
Sad but I'm surprised it lasted this long? I wonder how much they could of sold it for during the dot.com bubble?
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Dotcom bubble ....One of my worst career decisions ever.

When I just changed from a really big software company to a small one, one of my former collegues from another division started a payment service partially funded by that big company (we had worked together on a joined business initiative from our divisions, but it failed because innovation and big corporates don't do well, so with this new service they tried the skunkworks approach by setting it apart as a seperate startup).

My former company asked me back, but I felt that I could not drop my new employer after just 10 months having given me a career opportunity (and felt more like a group of friends than a company). Three years later it was sold for 40 million (I was offered 10% stock also as sales director).

On the other hand I pickep up a new skill "facilitating second phase growth jumps" and could retire at 60 :-) so complaining with healthy bones as we say in Dutch.

Yesterday our free walking tour guide in Uzbekistan (who collected foreign coins) asked us what I collected and I answered 'happiness and broad world impressions'. :-)
 
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LinuxFan58 said:
Yesterday our free walking tour guide in Uzbekistan (who collected foreign coins) asked us what I collected and I answered 'happiness and broad world impressions'. :-)
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You know it's just a scam to get free money from tourists. Every local collects coins in 3rd world/foreign countries. People don't care about $1 coins but to a local it's good money.

Captain obvious I know, first time I said sure then the next 50 locals asking for coins because they collect them :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
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Zero Knowledge said:
You know it's just a scam to get free money from tourists. Every local collects coins in 3rd world/foreign countries. People don't care about $1 coins but to a local it's good money.

Captain obvious I know, first time I said sure then the next 50 locals asking for coins because they collect them :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
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Actually they reverse the trick now. In Uzbekistan 100 euro is 1.5 million som, so by offering you some coins (which are not made anymore and with running inflation are worthless anyway), they apply the "I did you a favor, so you are obliged to return the favor" trick.

I teach sales, so was impressed how our young guide warmed up the relation, gained trust by telling my wife how the arranged marriage procedure was (and of course invited her for his wedding in october).

We were the only ones and I already had decided to give him 10 bucks each for his text book standard of charming up a client (if he was a student I would given him an A grade for sales skills), so I told her he did well and wanted to give 20 dollar. Then she said "that little" and gave me the "you are not going to get it for at least a month" look so I added another 10-er.
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Yeah last time in Paris where there is always a guy with the fake plastic gold ring scam. I said no thanks but gave him a few euro coins anyway. He gave me the 5 cent ring, happy days! Happened more than once in EU, I'm not rude so give them a few coins. More respect for them than cheating taxi drivers!
 
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