Ask.com shuts down after almost 30 years

2 min readUpdated May 4, 2026

Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026, ending almost 30 years of operation after parent company IAC decided to exit the search business.

"As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com," the company said in a notice posted on its website. The site added a farewell to its users: "To you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust."

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IAC acquired Ask Jeeves for more than $1 billion in 2005. Jeeves was retired in 2006 as the company rebranded and pushed to position itself as a serious search competitor, with the revamped product debuting innovations that included thumbnail previews of webpages and map results tied to specific localities. The effort fell short. At TechCrunch Disrupt that year, IAC Chairman Barry Diller publicly acknowledged that Ask.com had failed to challenge Google $GOOGL and was contributing nothing to IAC's perceived market value, according to TechCrunch. The company that year scaled back its ambitions and refocused on question-and-answer content.

Even after refocusing on Q&A, the site found itself squeezed out — unable to match the community-driven appeal of platforms like Quora or to make any dent in Google's grip on how people navigate the web, according to The New York Times.

The Ask.com shutdown notice closes with a line that has drawn attention online: "Jeeves' spirit endures."

IAC pulled the plug on Ask.com, ending nearly 30 years of web search

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