Ask.com facts for kids
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Ask on desktop as of June 3, 2011
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Type of site
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Answer engine, e-magazine, newsbot |
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| Available in | English |
| Founded | June 3, 1996 (as Ask Jeeves) |
| Owner | InterActiveCorp, via subsidiary Ask Media Group |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | June 1, 1997 |
| Current status | Online |
Ask.com, first known as Ask Jeeves, is a website that helps you find answers to questions. It's like an online magazine and used to be a search engine. Ask Media Group runs it.
The idea for Ask.com came from Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in 1996. They were based in Berkeley, California. In 2025, the website started using a new smart computer system called a "large language model" to create answers.
The first computer program was made by Gary Chevsky. David Warthen, Gary Chevsky, and Justin Grant then worked on how the website looked and felt. This led to the first launch of AskJeeves.com.
In 2006, the name "Jeeves" was removed. The company then focused on Ask.com as a web search engine. It had its own system to find and rank websites.
By late 2010, Ask.com faced tough competition from bigger search engines. So, it decided to use search technology from other companies. It went back to being a website where people could ask and answer questions.
In 2025, Ask Media Group completely stopped being a web search engine after 27 years. Soon after, the Ask.com Answer Engine was relaunched. It became a "newsbot" service. This new service automatically creates new articles that look like magazines. It uses a new type of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to do this.
Three investment companies, Highland Capital Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, and The RODA Group, were early supporters.
Ask.com is now owned by a big U.S. media company called InterActiveCorp (IAC). IAC bought Ask Media Group in 2005.
Contents
How Ask.com Started
Ask.com was first called Ask Jeeves. "Jeeves" was the name of a helpful "gentleman's personal gentleman," like a valet. He would "fetch" answers to any question. The character was named after Jeeves, a valet in the books by P. G. Wodehouse.
The main idea behind Ask Jeeves was to let people ask questions in their normal everyday language. It also allowed for regular keyword searches. Ask was always known for its ability to answer questions about math, words, and converting units. Writers also added general articles on many topics, like an encyclopedia. As other publications owned by InterActiveCorp joined with Ask, thousands of articles became available.
Ask Jeeves started as a test version in April 1997. It fully launched on June 1, 1997.
On September 18, 2001, Ask Jeeves bought another company called Teoma for over $1.5 million.
In July 2005, IAC bought Ask Jeeves.
In February 2006, the name "Jeeves" was dropped from Ask Jeeves. The search engine was simply renamed Ask.
On May 16, 2006, Ask added a "Binoculars Site Preview" to its search results. When you moved your mouse over the "binoculars," a small picture of the website would pop up. This let you see the page before clicking on it.
On June 5, 2007, Ask.com got a new look with a 3D design.
In December 2007, Ask launched a feature called AskEraser. This allowed users to stop the website from tracking their searches and computer information. They also said they would delete this data after 18 months if AskEraser was not used.
On July 4, 2008, Ask bought Lexico Publishing Group. This company owned popular websites like Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com.
In August 2008, Ask started Ask Kids, a search engine made just for children.
In April 2009, for the UK version of Ask.com, Jeeves was redesigned as a computer-generated character. The website was again named Ask Jeeves in the UK. Other countries still used Ask.com. Jeeves's image stayed on the UK website until July 21, 2016. The name Ask Jeeves was used until September 21, 2016, when it became just Ask again.
On July 26, 2010, Ask.com started a test version of a Q&A (Question and Answer) service. It was opened to everyone on July 29, 2010. Ask.com also launched its mobile Q&A app for iPhones in late 2010.
By 2012, Ask.com had 100 million users worldwide each month on its website. Its main mobile app was downloaded over 2 million times that year. The company also made other apps based on its Q&A experience, like Ask Around in 2011 and PollRoll in 2012.
Changes to Search and AI
In 2010, Ask.com stopped using its own web search engine. A new Ask search engine, made by another company, took its place.
This change meant that Ask.com stopped developing its own web search technology. Most of its web search work was given to other companies. About 130 jobs for search engineers were lost. The company said this was because of strong competition from bigger companies like Google and Yahoo.
Earlier in 2010, Ask had started a Q&A community. This allowed real people to provide answers instead of just computer programs. This new service was then combined with the existing collection of questions and answers. This new system greatly improved Ask Jeeves's original Q&A features, providing many more answers.
In April 2025, Ask.com left the web search engine market after 27 years. This included shutting down the web search engine service on the Norton SafeSearch website. After this, users of Ask.com Search could only find results from articles published by Ask Media Group before late 2022. These changes happened suddenly, with no public announcement on either website. The Ask.com support team also stopped working at this time.
In May 2025, Ask Media Group made big changes to its business. It launched new main software that uses a large language model system of generative artificial intelligence to provide all content. Many new articles are now published regularly on Ask.com. All of these are created automatically by the main software. The AI system also automatically rewrites old articles that were written by former Ask journalists. Thousands of articles are updated automatically every month.
Ask.com does not currently offer a chatbot service. Garrett Gruener, one of the people who started Ask Jeeves, said that Amazon Alexa uses a similar idea to what they designed for Jeeves, but with voice. He also said that the current AI system used by Microsoft Bing is very much like the original Ask Jeeves idea.
Company Information
The Ask Media Group main office is in downtown Oakland, California. It is located in the 555 City Center building.
Ask Jeeves, Inc. shares were traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange from July 1999 to July 2005. In July 2005, IAC bought the company for $1.85 billion.
The current president of Ask Media Group, Douglas Leeds, became CEO in 2010.
In 2012, Ask.com bought two companies to add more content to its website. On July 2, 2012, Ask.com bought nRelate, a company that helps find content. Then, in September 2012, it bought About.com, a website with expert advice and information.
On August 14, 2014, Ask.com bought the popular social networking website Ask.fm. On this site, users can ask other users questions, sometimes without showing their name. As of August 14, 2014, Ask.fm had 180 million unique users each month in over 150 countries. Its biggest group of users was in the United States. Ask.fm is available on the web and as a mobile app. It gets about 20,000 questions per minute. About 45 percent of its mobile users log in every day. By 2014, the mobile app had been downloaded over 40 million times.
In 2021, Ask brought back its SymptomFind feature. It also launched a new finance website called Ask Money.
Advertising and Promotion
From November 1999, Ask Jeeves advertised in some areas by putting stickers on fruits like apples, oranges, and bananas. Questions like "How many calories in a banana?" were printed next to the Ask Jeeves website address.
A Jeeves balloon and a parade float appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from 2000 to 2004.
Apostolos Gerasoulis, who helped create Ask's Teoma search technology, appeared in four TV ads in 2007. He talked about how useful Ask.com was for finding good information.
After a break from big advertising campaigns, Ask changed its website to focus on questions and answers again. It started advertising on TV again in the fall of 2011. Instead of national ads, Ask focused on local areas. In the summer of 2012, it started a national movie theater campaign. It also used other outdoor ads in cities like New York and Seattle.
As part of a local effort in Seattle, Ask.com started its "You Asked We Answered" campaign in 2012. In this campaign, the company "answered" common complaints from people living in the city. This included making morning commutes easier, helping with stadium traffic, and keeping local park wading pools open.
On January 14, 2009, Ask.com became a sponsor for Bobby Labonte's No. 96 Ford car in NASCAR. Ask also became the official search engine of NASCAR. Ask.com was the main sponsor for the No. 96 car for 18 of the first 21 races. They could increase this to 29 races that season. The Ask.com car first appeared in the 2009 Bud Shootout. It did not finish that race, but later did well, finishing 5th in a March 1, 2009, race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ask.com's move into NASCAR was its first step into what it called "Super Verticals."
More to Explore
- Comparison of search engines
- List of search engines
- List of search engines by popularity
See also
In Spanish: Ask.com para niños
