Ask Jeeves
Born 1996. Died 27 February 2006.
Ask Jeeves passed on 27 February 2006, having lived ten years as a search engine that promised to answer questions. Born in 1996, it offered a butler and a text box. Users typed in sentences. Jeeves, in theory, understood. The natural-language approach never quite worked, but the butler endured. At its peak the service held nearly seven percent of the search market. In 2005 it was acquired for nearly two billion dollars. The new owner decided Jeeves had to go. The butler reminded users of broken promises. On 27 February 2006, Ask.com launched without him. He is survived by Ask.com, which has no face, and by the conviction that the right question, asked plainly, might still be answered.
We are retiring Jeeves. The butler has become an albatross.
Replaced by inferior successor
Mourned by Those who asked questions in plain English, users who trusted a butler more than a search box, and anyone who believed the web could answer in sentences.
Ask.com, which kept the domain but not the butler; the search box, which won; and the memory of a time when a search engine could have a face.