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[winjer]

A Farewell to Ask.com | 25 Years of Curiosity

Every great search

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 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.

Chances are, only the "older" internet users around here will know what this site was.
Ask Jeeves was one of the main sites to search content and answers in the age of the Web 1.0

 

[Forsete]

Never used it.
Altavista was the first search engine I used. I was late to join the google band wagon.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Great, now I'll never get to try it

 

[poodaddy]

End of a legacy there. I loved ask when I was a kid, I was that weirdo who asked him how he was and actually got a response lol. Terrible search engine, cute idea though.

Not gonna lie, I didn't know it was still a thing :/. Haven't heard of it in well over a decade.

 

[Artoris]

Surprised that it was still in use

 

[kanjobazooie]

Angelfire be sweating.

Edit: Apparently angelfire got shut down too last month.

 

[Rockondevil]

How is it possible it was still going. I haven't used it, nor heard of it being used, for at least 25 years.

 

[Sybrix]

A relic of the 90s internet, simple times.

 

[Sybrix]

How is it possible it was still going. I haven't used it, nor heard of it being used, for at least 25 years.

Likley had user data to sell for the last few years, probably got to the point now that it wasnt profitable.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Never used it.
Altavista was the first search engine I used. I was late to join the google band wagon.

Remember Webcrawler?

 

[Forsete]

Remember Webcrawler?

Yes but I never used it.

 

[Windle Poons]

Fuck me, I'm old. Next you'll be telling me Lycos has gone and the dog is dead...

 

[MooMilk2929]

I tried ask jeeves before. It was kinda nice. Seemed pretty good. I can't remember if I found google first or not.

 

[poppabk]

Excite is still up and running although they may be owned by Ask Jeeves so probably not long for this world either.

 

[jufonuk]

Wait ? I assumed it was already closed or phased out.

Salute to an OG

 

[rkofan87]

A Farewell to Ask.com | 25 Years of Curiosity

Chances are, only the "older" internet users around here will know what this site was.
Ask Jeeves was one of the main sites to search content and answers in the age of the Web 1.0

damn with Google how did it stay open for so damn long???

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Interestingly, AskJeeves felt like it yielded better results when actually phrasing search queries as questions (you know, similar to how you might prompt a LLM).

Well crafted Google queries annihilated the competition, but AskJeeves was up there with Altavista as Google's top competitors. Much better than Dogpile and other complete trash though.

 

[StueyDuck]

One those small time bubble things that a very distinct age of people would have been affected by.

Old 90s internet is a helluva place

 

[falconhoof]

If anyone is struggling and needs an alternate I have a few options

Or if you're more into the darker web stuff.

 

[Clear]

Damn, this thread giving me serious flashbacks... Ask Jeeves, Altavista, and Angelfire... where did the last 30 years go!

 

[MrRibeye]

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Surprised that it was still in use

Same here, the actual last time I remember of it was on a mates, girlfriends, dads Dell..

On dial up

 

[uncreativename]

Huh, I assumed Ask Jeeves closed years and years ago

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

 

[Ikutachi]

The mascot needs to survive in a comic.

 

[kevboard]

 

[uncreativename]

The mascot needs to survive in a comic.

I have good news for you https://myanimelist.net/manga/13383/Please_Jeeves , also there's the books.

 

[Unknown?]

Well, that sucks. I use https://www.mojeek.com/ or https://search.brave.com/

 

[Grenseal]

 

[rm082e]

About once a month I think about searches I used to do on hotbot back in the 90s. I never used ask.

 

[Agave]

It was already bad enough when Yahoo Answers shut down . . .

 

[winjer]

Well, that sucks. I use https://www.mojeek.com/ or https://search.brave.com/

Sometimes I also use https://www.qwant.com/ and https://duckduckgo.com/

 

[Mr Reasonable]

I read that this was closing down on Bebo.

 

[deriks]

I used in my in my first year or so ever use of internet, alongside the AOL search too

Eventually I turned to Yahoo and Google, then tabs became a thing and Google was already my default engine

 

[AJUMP23]

The search engine of the aristocracy.

 

[//DEVIL//]

didnt know they were still around to be honest.

i probably used them once when i had a dail up modem :/

altavista was the one ( even that was garbage lol )

 

[p_xavier]

It is weird cause with AI times it would have been a perfect match.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Wow. What a wild time back then. AJ, Yahoo, Altavista, Excite.... I faintly remember AJ being a weird one that would give unique search results.

Also, I remember a friend making a webpage for a school assignment. I tried to find it searching for it and could only find it on Altavista. lol

 

[MrCunningham]

RIP. I can't say that I ever used "Ask Jeeves" much or relied on it. But yeah, it is a staple of the 90's internet. The first search engine that I ever used was Web Crawler, and later Yahoo. I would have imagined that Ask Jeeves would have fully embraced AI, but they clearly did not. Not surprising that the owners finally closed it down.

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

Space Jam

 

[Elginer]

This and Lycos were my shit back
In the day. Sweet Moses I'm getting old.