The Internet's oldest search engine, Ask.com, is shutting down forever after 30 years

A memorable name in the history of the Internet, Ask.com, was officially closed on May 1, 2026. This search engine was introduced in 1996 as Ask Jeeves, meaning it came before Google and at that time had a unique identity in the world of the Internet. Its special feature was that users could search in the form of questions in natural language, which was a revolutionary idea at that time.

In 2006, when it could not compete with other search engines, Jeeves was removed from the name and it was changed to Ask.com, but this change also did not work in the face of Google's growing dominance. Interactive Corporation, the company that owned Ask.com since 2005, announced the closure, saying that every great search has an end and that after answering questions from around the world for 25 years, it was time to end the search business.

The company thanked millions of users and the engineers and designers who built and operated Ask.com for decades. This closure marks the end of an important chapter in the early history of the Internet.