Ask Jeeves has been one of the more ‘liked’ (as well as quirky) search engines for eons (it is also one of the few ‘original’ services to survive), and it’s Jeeves ‘butler’ logo design a classic. Unfortunately, it is also one of the least used of the searches services, running a distant fifth, behind Google, Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN, and Time Warner, which includes America Online (on the upside, Ask Jeeves has increased its paltry 6.5% market share by 1 percentage point since November 2004).
Anyhoo… Ask Jeeves‘ most recognized property was it’s butler, Jeeves, and the resultant search engine logo that’s been around since the mid-90’s. He’s undergone some changes over the years (a tan, a more lean physique and a modern business suit) but remained the premier visual property for the search service in their branding and logo material. Ask and the butler logo had a rather odd history – he was the subject of a dispute between Ask and the estate of British humorist P. G. Wodehouse, a prolific writer who immortalized a butler named Jeeves in his novels. Apparently, Ask never received permission to use the name, the estate grumbled, and up until now the Ask Jeeves site featured a link that outlined how the Wodehouse people did not approve of their butler.
Whether or not this is a factor is open to speculation, but the Ask Jeeves folks have killed off Jeeves, and the search engine will be known simply as Ask with simple text based company logos – for the most part unchanged from the text/character version.
Don’t know about you, but I’m kinda sad to see the old dude go. The revamp is being presented as part of a restructring of the search service, more details of which will be rolled out by Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of Ask JeevesIAC/InterActiveCorp, during his keynote speech at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo in New York on Monday…
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