Overview
- Ask.com, which posted a farewell message on May 1, 2026, has closed its search service and thanked users and staff.
- Parent company IAC said it is discontinuing its search business as it refocuses the company away from legacy search.
- The site launched as Ask Jeeves in 1997 after its 1996 founding and let people type questions in plain language to a butler mascot named Jeeves.
- IAC bought the company in 2005, rebranded it as Ask.com in 2006, and around 2010 it stopped building its own crawler and shifted to a Q&A model.
- The shutdown underscores how web search has concentrated around a few large providers, leaving smaller or older engines with little room to compete.