Ask Jeeves Will Be Ask.com – Diller Confirms
Looks like Jeeves is finally on his way out the door as the symbol of Ask.com. Barry Diller confirmed yesterday ar a Goldman Sachs conference that Ask Jeeves will be rebranding to Ask.com. The Street reports that Diller also stressed the importance of integrating other IAC offerings into Ask Jeeves.
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs event in Manhattan, Diller said integrating Ask Jeeves into the company’s other businesses was a top priority for IAC, which also runs Ticketmaster and Match.Com. Diller didn’t say when Jeeves, who first hit the Internet in 1996, would disappear.
“It is potentially the glue for almost all of our services,” Diller said of Ask.com, adding that the site will begin operating in China next year. “Our job is to increase Ask’s market share.”
Ask.com has already started integrating IAC offerings into their search results with the appearance of Gift.com suggestions in Ask.com results.
This is horrible… I find that when I think of search engine the first thing that comes to my head is the Jeeves guy (then Google). They are killing an Internet Icon!