The Ask Jeeves-ification of online search
![A screenshot of a Google search query. The query is “remember when google search was good?”](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TTzd35VBePqHSElO9VBxEyBWzLg=/501x0:2319x1212/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72275250/Screenshot_2023_05_12_at_12.19.54_PM.5.png)
There are some who will tell you that Ask Jeeves was right all along. I’m less sure that’s true. In fact, I am starting to think that if you are a technical person who is considering a startup, Google’s fascination with adding a slow and unreliable AI chat to its results is an opening for you to put a brick on the gas pedal and absolutely run Google over.
Ask Jeeves launched in 1997, and the idea was that you’d type a natural-language query into the box, and the valet would come back with an answer. (Jeeves is named for P.G. Wodehouse’s famous character, a near-omniscient man with a “feudal spirit.” Disclosure: my cat is also named for this character.) It was popular until Google Search entered the scene — an engine with a better ability…