How Ask Jeeves blew it

# Ask Jeeves: How a Smart Idea Got Left Behind Ask Jeeves, the search engine with the cartoon butler mascot that many remember fondly, shut down in May after decades of decline—a cautionary tale about missing the mark with a good original idea. The company started in 1997 with something genuinely useful: answering questions in plain language rather than forcing users to figure out search terms, but instead of doubling down on that advantage, the company kept pivoting and eventually became irrelevant. By the time it shut down, Ask.com had become a dumping ground for outdated articles, showing how poor management and lost direction can squander even promising innovations.