Jeeves’ Services are No Longer Required

By Geoff Duncan Published September 23, 2005

At a Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York this week, controversial IAC/InterActivCorp CEO Barry Diller said that the famous, snazzy butler tending to Ask Jeeves search engine will be disappearing. The Jeeves character, created by P.G. Wodehouse, was made a bit trimmer and thinner (and given a tan) in 2004, but will be disappearing from the site altogether in the future. Instead, the search engine will present itself as "ask.com" or simply "Ask."

IAC completed its acquisition of Ask Jeeves in July of this year, paying $1.85 billion for the Internet search engine company.

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Although no timeline has been set for Jeeves’ departure, the company says its surveys have found the character makes the site seem old-fashioned, and gets in the way of users discovering new features and improvements to the search engine’s technology.

But for those of us who’ve never had the services of a good butler or gentleman’s man, IAC’s decision is just another way of letting us know we’ll forever be hoi polloi. Really—can’t a person dream anymore?

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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