The Shocking Truth Behind Why ‘Ask Jeeves’ Disappeared – What Brits Never Knew Until Now

Remember Ask Jeeves? That charming gent in a pinstripe suit who promised to answer your internet questions like a proper butler would? If you’ve ever found yourself muttering, “Whatever happened to that bloke?”—you’re not alone. Back when dial-up tones serenaded homes across the UK and smartphones were the stuff of sci-fi daydreams, Ask Jeeves was the digital oracle for a generation dipping their toes into the wild, new world of the internet. But in a landscape soon dominated by Google’s sleek algorithms and AI chatbots, Jeeves slowly faded into the shadows by 2006, reemerging in a less distinguished form as Ask.com. So how did our sartorially savvy search companion get edged out of the spotlight? Pull up a chair—it’s a bit of a tale, full of nostalgia, shifting tech tides, and the relentless march of Silicon Valley giants. LEARN MORE

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.

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)

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.

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)

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?”

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)

“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.