Ask.com asks Jeeves to take on Google again

Jeeves is back and is here to take on Google
Jeeves is back and is here to take on Google

Web search engine Ask.com is bringing back its butler Jeeves in a bid to challenge Google in the search engine stakes.

It was back in 2006 when askjeeves.com changed to the simpler moniker ask.com. Since then, the search market has seen near dominance by Google, who has around 90 per cent of the market, with others like Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Ask scrapping for the other 10 per cent.

Human answers

"We have been focused on developing an outstanding producer [sic] that will deliver outstanding results and Jeeves is just the icing on the cake," said Managing director Cesar Mascaraque about the search engine re-think.

"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."

Quest for knowledge

To reiterate the fact that Jeeves is 'human', Ask has launched an ad campaign that sees a CG Jeeves walk around the search engine's homepage.

There's even a 'Why Am I Back?' question on the front page, where Jeeves himself explaining that: "I popped out three years ago to travel the world in a quest for knowledge and I've returned to Blighty armed with answers. During my sojourn research showed the public wanted me back, which I found jolly touching."

Er, right. For some reason his blog doesn't mention his alleged dalliance into porn.

To see the Ask.com re-jig for yourself, point your browser to http://uk.ask.com.

Via BBC

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.