• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Brits are only just finding out sad reason why 'Ask Jeeves' no longer exists

Home> News> Technology

Updated 16:17 18 May 2025 GMT+1Published 12:34 18 May 2025 GMT+1

Brits are only just finding out sad reason why 'Ask Jeeves' no longer exists

Back in the late 90s, the internet was revolutionised by search engines like Ask Jeeves

Emily Puckering

Emily Puckering

Featured Image Credit: Getty Images

Topics: AI, Reddit, Technology, UK News, Nostalgia, Google

Emily Puckering
Emily Puckering

Emily is a sub-editor at LADbible Group. With degrees in English Language and Multimedia Journalism, she works with the editorial team on LADbible, UNILAD and Tyla sub-editing and writing articles. And for those who are interested, Emily is from East Yorkshire which means she makes a cracking cuppa.

X

@emily_puckering

Advert

Advert

Advert

Have you ever wondered what on Earth happened to Ask Jeeves?

If so, you're certainly not the only one as Brits have been asking this very question about the iconic search engine that was a staple of the late 90s.

Cast your minds back to almost 30 years ago, when the internet was starting to make waves in households across the UK.

Advert

Even though we had to go through the faff of dialing it up using the landline phone (if you know, you know), and smartphones weren't even a thought, there's no arguing it was a brilliant - and simpler - time.

Search engines on the internet were a completely new and dazzling concept in the early 90s, with the first one, called Archie, being launched in 1990.

Ask Jeeves... you had to be there (Newscast/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Ask Jeeves... you had to be there (Newscast/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

And while the likes of Google and artificial intelligence chatbots are now the absolute go-tos when it comes to internet search engines today in 2025, believe it or not, before Google there was Ask Jeeves.

Launched a year before Google in 1997 by entrepreneurs Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in California, US, Ask Jeeves was arguably a trailblazer.

Advert

Accompanied by an animated man dressed in a black pinstriped suit, Ask Jeeves' homepage prompted: "Have a question? Just type it in and click Ask!"

For almost a decade, Ask Jeeves was the go-to for many who had all sorts of burning questions for the internet. So much so that The Atlantic reports that within just two years of launching, the site was handling more than 1 million queries a day.

So why, in 2006, did it seemingly vanish from the internet?

Now this is some real nostalgia... (Ask Jeeves)
Now this is some real nostalgia... (Ask Jeeves)

Over on Reddit, someone decided to try and get to the bottom of this mystery, asking their fellow Redditors: "What ever happened to just ask Jeeves?"

Advert

Spurred on by nostalgia and curiosity, many decided to deep-dive into Ask Jeeves' disappearance, and its rebrand was soon uncovered.

Yep, in 2006, Just Jeeves was replaced with the more generic Ask.com - which is still live and operating to this very day, though it isn't as functional as leading search engine operators like Google and Yahoo!.

Speaking to The Atlantic, Ask Jeeves' co-creator Garrett Gruener revealed how the rise of Google ultimately lead to the search engine's demise.

"None of us were very concerned about monetization in the beginning," Gruener explained. "Everyone in search early on realized, if you got this right, you’d essentially be in the position of being the oracle.

Unfortunately for Jeeves, Google was the rising star of the search engines (Illustration by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Unfortunately for Jeeves, Google was the rising star of the search engines (Illustration by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Advert

"If you could be the company to go to in order to ask questions online, you’re going to be paid handsomely."

However, Gruener isn’t at all bitter about losing out to Google - which started to fulfill parts of Jeeves' promise of answering questions with answer boxes - saying: "If anything, I’m really proud of our Jeeves."

Speaking of the future of technology and artificial intelligence, Gruener added: "I find this future fascinating and, if I’m honest, a little validating. It’s like, ultimately, as the tech has come around, the big guys have come around to what we were trying to do."

Even though Ask Jeeves is no more, there's absolutely no denying it's innovation and influence, especially during those wonderful, early days of technology.

Choose your content:

10 hours ago
11 hours ago
12 hours ago
  • 10 hours ago

    Worrying simulation shows how nuclear bomb really works as global tensions continue to rise

    A simulation of an atomic bomb has highlighted the alarming effects it can cause

    News
  • 11 hours ago

    Explicit 'freak off' text messages between Diddy and ex-girlfriend revealed in court for first time

    Messages between Diddy and his ex-girlfriend Jane after 'freak-offs' were shown to the court

    News
  • 11 hours ago

    Donald Trump shares private message with NATO chief with worrying threat to Europe

    Donald Trump shared a screenshot of a recent conversation with NATO chief Mark Rutte

    News
  • 12 hours ago

    Everything we know about Iran-Israel ceasefire following confusion over it actually being agreed

    The Iran-Israel ceasefire has already been broken, according to Israel's defence minister

    News
  • Why so many Brits are becoming 'drug mules' as mum faces firing squad in Bali
  • Reason I'm A Celeb stars no longer have phone numbers on the back of their uniform
  • People are only just finding out about 'mind-blowing' iPad trick that is 'from the year 3022'
  • Brits warned about 36 health conditions no longer treated on NHS following major change