Throwback Thursday: Ask.com Search Engine

Today’s Thursday, September 18, 2014, which is another “Throwback Thursday”. I thought today we’d look back at Ask.com and see what Ask looked like on my birthday, November 27, 1999. Back in 1999, we had this guy named “Jeeves” who you could ask a question.

At that time, Ask thought the future of search was people who went to search engines to ask a question. Rather than search for a keyword, apparently they thought that keywords were overrated. We’d all be asking questions rather than searching for a keyword. Oh how they were wrong.

Still, now, in 2014, it’s about keywords and not questions. Sure, we can ask Google a question and they’ll respond. But based on what I’m seeing in analytics and actual referrers, it’s all about keywords. And not questions.

Well, in 2006, Ask.com retired Jeeves after a decade of service.