Goodbye Jeeves

It's no walk in the park living in the age of technology in a third world country. I was in late high-school, early college I think when I first got to know Jeeves (Askjeeves.com), which was like 3 years after it started and now he's gone (or going anyway). Such a shame, always thought a persona like that was quite good from a marketing perspective.

Happy 8th Birthday Jeeves and well I guess Happy Retirement too. [http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050415-120408]

Here's a brief history

Jeeves was hired in 1996 and gained frame in 1998. The butler of the web operated quite similar to any search engine, only that it functioned on a "natural language" method, where you can just type your question and receive an answer. They just grew and grew from a few hundread thousand searches in 1997 to launching international in 1999.

• They started Ask Jeeves for Kids
• Acquired companies like DirectHit and Teoma that avidly increased their search capacity
• Partnered with Google for their paid listings
• Acquired even more companies...
• Later on opened their own blog

I actually thought business was good for Jeeves, until Ask.com decided to revamp with Watson, their new self service search toolbar.

I admit, I had used it in the passed and found it not quite direct to the point as it did have it's search engine limitations. It still required the keyword matching matrix and therefore cannot really give the exact feedback as you would like a "Jeopardy" game winner to sound. So I guess they had to upgrade to be able to compete in the market.

As search began to evolve, and everyone went on the Google bandwagon, Jeeves slowly dropped off the search market. I for one, started using Google, Google, and Google. Not only because I think I have crushes on Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but maybe because I think their thing works ;-) Call me weird but genius = sexy (and they're not bad for the eyes either)

Ooops! Just went off track there. Anyway back to Jeeves, if you want to hire him



Isn't he just adorable? I have a soft spot for grandfather-looking type persons because of my beloved grandfather - wonderful man: smart, handsome, charming, womanizer (well, nobody's perfect). Here's Jeeves' Resume too http://ajobforjeeves.com/wp/images/jeevesresume.jpg

Well that's if for Jeeves, life (or employment) is so short.