Ask.com (originally known as Ask Jeeves) is a
question answering–focused
e-business
Electronic business (or "Online Business" or "e-business") is any kind of business or commercial transaction that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, grou ...
founded in 1996 by
Garrett Gruener
Garrett Gruener is an American venture capitalist, most known as the founder of Ask.com and a co-founder of Alta Partners. He was also a candidate for the 2003 California recall special election from the Democratic Party, finishing 28th in a fi ...
and
David Warthen David Warthen (born December 10, 1957) was one of the founders of Ask Jeeves, now called Ask.com, an internet search engine. Warthen has served as Chief Technology Officer or Vice President of Engineering for a variety of companies, many of them st ...
in
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
The original software was implemented by
Gary Chevsky
Gary Chevsky (born 11 September 1972 in Odessa, USSR) is an American entrepreneur, engineer and was the founding architect of Ask.com. He served as President at Tango mobile video and audio-over-IP calling service for consumers, before founding ...
, from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine. In 2006, the "Jeeves" name was dropped and they refocused on the
search engine, which had its own algorithm.
In late 2010, facing insurmountable competition from more popular search engines like
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
, the company outsourced its web search technology and returned to its roots as a
question and answer site.
Douglas Leeds
Doug Leeds (born 16 May 1968), is the Chief Executive Officer of IAC Publishing, a digital media operating group launched on December 9, 2015, by media and Internet conglomerate IAC. The single digital media publisher reaches 100 million monthly u ...
was elevated from president to CEO in 2010.
Three venture capital firms,
Highland Capital Partners
Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Highland has raised over $4 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 280 companies, with 47 IPOs and 134 Acqui ...
,
Institutional Venture Partners, and The RODA Group were early investors. Ask.com is currently owned by
InterActiveCorp
IAC Inc. is an American holding company that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet. The company is incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in New York City. Joey Levin, who previously led t ...
(IAC) under the
NASDAQ symbol , and its corporate headquarters are located at
555 City Center
555 City Center is a 20-storey, story, skyscraper in the Oakland City Center, City Center complex of downtown Oakland, California. The building was completed in 2002, and designed by Korth Sunseri Hagey Architects of San Francisco for Shorenste ...
, in the
Oakland City Center
Oakland City Center is an office, shopping and hotel complex in Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California. The complex is the product of a redevelopment project begun in the late 1950s. It covers twelve city blocks between Broadway on the east, Marti ...
development in downtown
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
.
History
Ask.com was originally known as Ask Jeeves,
"Jeeves" being the name of a "gentleman's personal gentleman", or
valet
A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "valet ...
, fetching answers to any question asked. The character was named after
Jeeves
Jeeves (born Reginald Jeeves, nicknamed Reggie) is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Berti ...
,
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligenc ...
's valet in the fictional works of
P. G. Wodehouse.
The original idea behind Ask Jeeves was to allow users to get answers to questions in everyday,
natural language, and traditional keyword searching. The current Ask.com still supports this for math, dictionary, and conversion questions.
Ask Jeeves launched in beta in mid-April 1997 and fully launched on June 1, 1997.
On September 18, 2001, Ask Jeeves acquired
Teoma
Teoma (from Scottish Gaelic ''teòma'' "expert") was an Internet search engine founded in April 2000 by Professor Apostolos Gerasoulis and his colleagues at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Professor Tao Yang from the University of California, ...
for over $1.5 million.
In July 2005, Ask Jeeves was acquired by
IAC.
In February 2006, Jeeves was removed from Ask Jeeves and the search engine rebranded to Ask.
On May 16, 2006, Ask implemented a "Binoculars Site Preview" into its search results. On search results pages, the "binoculars" let searchers have a preview of the page they could visit with a mouse-over activating a pop-up screenshot.
On June 5, 2007, Ask.com relaunched with a 3D look.
In December 2007, Ask released the AskEraser feature, allowing users to
opt-out The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This option is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as e-mail marketing or direct mail. A list of thos ...
from tracking of
search queries and
IP and
cookie values. They also vowed to erase this data after 18 months if the AskEraser option is not set.
HTTP cookies
HTTP cookies (also called web cookies, Internet cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small blocks of data created by a web server while a user is browsing a website and placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's we ...
must be enabled for AskEraser to function.
On July 4, 2008, Ask acquired Lexico Publishing Group, which owns
Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is an online dictionary whose domain was first registered on May 14, 1995. The primary content on Dictionary.com is a proprietary dictionary based on ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'', with editors for the site providing new ...
,
Thesaurus.com
Reference.com is an online encyclopedia that organizes content that uses a question-and-answer format. Articles are organized into hierarchical categories.
Before IAC restructured the site following an acquisition in 2008, Reference.com compr ...
, and
Reference.com
Reference.com is an online encyclopedia that organizes content that uses a question-and-answer format. Articles are organized into hierarchical categories.
Before IAC (company), IAC restructured the site following an acquisition in 2008, Refer ...
.
In August 2008, Ask launched the Ask Kids search engine designed for children.
In April 2009, Jeeves returned to the UK version of Ask.com, redesigned as a CGI character and the website was once again named Ask Jeeves, though international versions were still just Ask.com. His image remained on the UK website until July 21, 2016, though the Ask Jeeves name would continue to be used until September 21, 2016, when the website rebranded to just Ask.
On July 26, 2010, Ask.com released a closed-beta Q&A service. The service was released to the public on July 29, 2010. Ask.com launched its mobile Q&A app for the iPhone in late 2010.
Ask.com reached 100 million global users per month in 2012 through its website with more than 2 million downloads of its flagship mobile app in that year. The company has also released additional apps spun out of its Q&A experience, including Ask Around in 2011 and PollRoll in 2012.
Search engine shut-down
In 2010, Ask.com abandoned the search industry, with the loss of 130 search engineering jobs, because it could not compete against more popular search engines such as
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
. Earlier in the year, Ask had launched a Q&A community for generating answers from real people as opposed to search algorithms then combined this with its question-and–answer repository, utilizing its extensive history of archived query data to search sites that provide answers to questions people have.
To avoid a situation in which no answers were available from its own resources, the company outsourced to an unnamed third-party search provider the comprehensive web search matches that it had gathered itself.
Ask Sponsored Listings
Formerly the direct-sales engine for Ask.com, Ask Sponsored Listings is no longer available, having merged with Sendori, an operating business of IAC, in 2011.
Corporate details
![Askcomheadquarters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Askcomheadquarters.jpg)
Ask Jeeves, Inc. stock traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange from July 1999 to July 2005, under the ticker symbol ASKJ. In July 2005, the ASKJ ticker was retired upon the acquisition by IAC, valued at US$1.85 billion.
In 2012, Ask.com made two acquisitions as part of a larger strategy to offer more content on the Ask.com website. On July 2, 2012, Ask.com purchased content discovery start-up nRelate for an undisclosed amount. That was followed by the company's acquisition of expert advice and information site
About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...
, which closed in September 2012.
On August 14, 2014, Ask.com acquired popular social networking website
ASKfm
ASKfm (Ask.fm until 14 January 2016) is a question and answer network launched in June 2010 as a competitor to Formspring. After registration, the user fills out his profile and can ask questions (anonymously or openly), reply on their profile, ...
, where users can ask other users questions, with the option of anonymity. As of August 14, 2014, Ask.fm had 180 million monthly unique users in more than 150 countries around the world, with its largest user base in the United States. Available on the web and as a mobile app, ASKfm generates an estimated 20,000 questions per minute with approximately 45 percent of its mobile
monthly active users
Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...
logging in daily.
, the mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times.
In 2021, Ask re-launched its ''SymptomFind'' brand and introduced the new finance-focused ''Ask Money'' site.
Marketing and promotion
Apostolos Gerasoulis
Apostolos Gerasoulis is a Greek professor of computer science at Rutgers University, and the co-creator of Teoma
Teoma (from Scottish Gaelic ''teòma'' "expert") was an Internet search engine founded in April 2000 by Professor Apostolos Geras ...
, the co-creator of Ask's Teoma algorithmic search technology, starred in four television advertisements in 2007, extolling the virtues of Ask.com's usefulness for information relevance. A Jeeves balloon appeared in the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with ...
through 2000–2004.
After a hiatus from mass consumer marketing, Ask returned to TV advertising in the fall of 2011 after refocusing its site on questions and answers. Instead of national advertising, Ask focused on local markets. In the summer of 2012, Ask launched a national cinema campaign, along with other out-of-home tactics in certain markets such as New York and
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
.
As part of a Seattle-based local market effort, Ask.com launched its "You Asked We Answered" campaign in 2012, in which the company "answered" residents' top complaints about living in their city, including easing morning commutes and stadium traffic, as well as keeping the local Parks and Rec department wading pools open.
On January 14, 2009, Ask.com became the official sponsor of 2000
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
Sprint Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. ...
Champion
Bobby Labonte
Robert Allen Labonte (born May 8, 1964) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and current analyst for ''NASCAR on Fox''. He also currently competes full-time in the Superstar Racing Experience, driving the No. 18 car. L ...
's No. 96
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
. Ask would become the official search engine of NASCAR. Ask.com was the primary sponsor for the No. 96 for 18 of the first 21 races and had rights to increase this to a total of 29 races that season. The Ask.com car debuted in the 2009 Bud Shootout where it failed to finish the race, but subsequently returned strongly, placing as high as 5th in a March 1, 2009,
Shelby 427
The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a sports car manufactured by British company AC Cars, with a Ford V8 engine. It was produced intermittently in both the United Kingdom and later the United ...
race at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada about 15 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, is a complex of multiple tracks for motorsports racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is ...
. Ask.com's foray into NASCAR represented the first instance of its venture into what it calls "
Super Verticals".
[
]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ask.Com
Companies based in Oakland, California
AskJeeves
Internet search engines
Desktop search engines
IAC (company)
Online companies of the United States
Internet properties established in 1996
Pay-per-click search engines
Question-and-answer websites
1999 initial public offerings
2005 mergers and acquisitions