Ask.com Brings Back Jeeves

I think it’s fair to say that some of the search engines out there are starting to clutch at straws in their attempt to claw back market shares from Google, Yahoo going into talks with Microsoft being a good example. But Ask.com are struggling as well, so they have called on the person who made them the company they are – Jeeves.

Yes, our favourite online answer-retrieving butler is back – and although Ask.com hasn’t told us why, the answer is probably to try and increase traffic on the back of people visiting on the back of curiosity, or for the nostalgia.

Jeeves was axed three years ago as the website name changed from AskJeeves.com to just Ask.com which presumably was to try and create a new image to fight the growing threat that Google posed. Evidently that hasn’t worked and Jeeves has returned to the new(ish) site to answer questions again.

The managing director Cesar Mascaraque said “Our aim is to give our users the answers they need for the lives they lead and Jeeves’ role is to give our users answers in a more human way… We have been focused on developing an outstanding product that will deliver outstanding results and Jeeves is just the icing on the cake.”

Evidently most of that is just to make the site look good, and obviously there is no mention of the falling number of visits that they have been getting over the last few years which one suspects has more to do with this re-introduction then icing does.

But although this may not be enough to bring it back to the stage that it was at in 1996 when it was founded it should give it the boost that is needed to fight it’s corner – their main threat will now probably be the Yahoo/Microsoft deal that threatens to steal the little bit of market that they do have. Having said that they did earn $227 million last year which just goes to show how lucrative this sector of the industry is!

Via – PC Advisor

Related Pages:

1. Bing Search Engine More Popular Than Yahoo?
2. Microsoft and Yahoo Finally Strike A Search Engine Deal
3. Twitter Gives Better Results Than Google?
4. Microsoft and Yahoo In Talks…Again!
5. Google Labs Adds Similar Images and News Timeline Search

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