AllEver.com

Ask Jeeves is about to let one of the most recognizable search engine mascots - retire. Jeeves, the valet (en-US: butler) who has since 1996 kept people company during their web searching, is going to be “phased out” as the company Ask.com is trying to reposition their brand. More on this story can be found here.

I have a feeling, that unless Ask.com undergoes some major refurbishing, removing Jeeves to web oblivion is not going to help much. If anything, I think it will hurt the company’s high brand recognition. Taking Jeeves out of the picture obviously means they’re targeting newcomers to the Internet, since anyone who’s been around long enough to associate Ask with Jeeves is likely to loose interest - Jeeves being what really differentiated them from the major web search tycoons. So, these users will probably stick to valued brands in web searching such as Google, MSN and Yahoo!

Providing users with lots of free services, would be Ask.com’s only hope. Now if they could actually make these better than the competition - they’re there to stay. But what is it really they can do that hasn’t already been done? How are they going to gain an edge? What is so important in Ask.com’s future that leaves no space for Jeeves? I hope Ask.com’s acquiring company (IAC) has a good plan.

Because if they plan to stay as they are, my opinion would be, why Ask when you can Google?

PS: Funny enough, there seems to have been a “Save Jeeves” campaign here.

This entry was posted by Pavlos on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Internet, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.