Ask Jeeves has closed after almost 30 yearsIt pioneered natural language web searchesToday, ChatGPT and Gemini work in similar ways With AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini available, it’s now easy to run web searches like “what are the best sights in Rome?” or “how do you fix a leaky shower?”, but this natural language format was actually pioneered almost 30 years ago — and by a search portal that just closed down. The portal was Ask Jeeves, later rebranded to Ask.com, and it opened fully to the public on June 1, 1997. As XDA Developers reports, what remained of Ask.com has now been shuttered by its current owner, InterActiveCorp (IAC). If you were online just as the internet was taking off, you’ll remember Ask Jeeves and its eponymous butler character — named after the valet Jeeves in the PG Wodehouse stories. The idea was to ask questions and get answers from the growing amount of information […]