Ask.com (known originally as Ask Jeeves ) is an internet-based business with a question answering format initiated during 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley , California .
43-449: The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky , from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website based on that core program. In 2006, the "Jeeves" name was discontinued and they emphasized use of the search engine , which had its own algorithm. In late 2010, with insurmountable competition from more popular search engines like Google ,
86-530: A 3D appearance. In December 2007, Ask released the AskEraser feature, allowing users to opt-out from tracking of search queries and IP and cookie values. They also announced they would erase this data after 18 months if the AskEraser option was not set. HTTP cookies must be enabled for AskEraser to function. On July 4, 2008, Ask acquired Lexico Publishing Group, which owns Dictionary.com , Thesaurus.com , and Reference.com . In August 2008, Ask initiated
129-634: A banana?" were printed alongside the Ask Jeeves web address. A Jeeves balloon and a float appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during 2000–2004. Apostolos Gerasoulis , the co-creator of Ask's Teoma algorithmic search technology, featured in four television advertisements in 2007, extolling the virtues of Ask.com's usefulness for information relevance. After a hiatus from mass consumer marketing, Ask reinstated its website's format to emphasize questions and answers, and resumed advertising by television during
172-502: A closed-beta Q&A service. The service was released to the public on July 29, 2010. Ask.com initiated its mobile Q&A application for the iPhone during late 2010. Ask.com reached 100 million global users per month in 2012 through its website with more than 2 million downloads of its flagship mobile app in that year. The company has also released additional applications developed from its Q&A experience, including Ask Around in 2011 and PollRoll in 2012. In 2010, Ask.com discontinued
215-549: A group of other entrepreneurs in New York City . The original goal was to maintain 1,800 topic areas, but after five years of operation, this number was reduced to around 700. In May 1999, the company changed its name to "About Inc." and the website name from "miningco.com" to "about.com". The company was acquired by Primedia, Inc. , in 2000 through a deal valued at US$ 690 million, whereby Primedia swapped 45.2 million shares for About, Inc.'s 18.1 million shares. At
258-552: A property of IAC , owner of Ask.com and numerous other online brands, and its revenue is generated by advertising. In addition to its Manhattan headquarters, Dotdash Meredith maintains offices elsewhere in the New York metropolitan area , as well as in Des Moines, Iowa , and Birmingham, Alabama . Founded in 1996 as The Mining Company, the site was launched on April 21, 1997, by Scott Kurnit , owner of General Internet, Bill Day, and
301-706: A redesigned About.com homepage, a doubling of the number of "how-to" and do-it-yourself videos on About.com's 24 channels, and new outlets on About.com for advertisers. The significant impact of the global financial crisis upon online advertising was experienced shortly after Irvine's appointment and she was removed from the CEO role after three years and three consecutive quarters in which revenue decreased. Martin Nisenholtz, SVP of digital operations, temporarily replaced Irvine following her departure in May 2011. In July 2011, Darline Jean
344-401: A situation in which no answers were available from its own resources, the company outsourced to an unnamed third-party search provider the comprehensive web search matches that it had gathered itself. Ask Sponsored Listings, formerly the direct-sales division for Ask.com, is no longer available, having merged with Sendori, an operating business of IAC, in 2011. Ask Jeeves, Inc. stock traded on
387-736: A summary of About's revenue model as part of his discussion of the future with Bloomberg : [We make money] one way, in general: we're advertising-supported. And that's monetized two ways: we do a lot of display advertising, and we do a lot of people clicking on links that we get paid for from Google and others ... If we have all this traffic, and we have all this content, if we can make people engage content more, and spend more time here [About.com], and do more things, we're going to have more page views and much more of an opportunity to monetize About. Vogel further explained that IAC has been able to create "compelling" content that manages to successfully engage Internet users, while About's content, in particular,
430-885: Is also featured in the Search Engine exhibit in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company , About.com and Dotdash ) is an American digital media company based in New York City . The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and education. It operates brands including Verywell , Investopedia , People , The Balance , Byrdie, MyDomaine, Brides , The Spruce, Simply Recipes , Serious Eats , Liquor.com, Lifewire , TripSavvy, TreeHugger , and ThoughtCo. In August 2012, About.com became
473-977: Is an American entrepreneur, engineer and was the founding architect of Ask.com . He served as President at Tango mobile video and audio-over-IP calling service for consumers, before founding a Social Virtual Reality company StayUp Inc. In 1992, Chevsky was hired by Garrett Gruener, fellow Berkeley grad and eventual co-founder, to help write programming for the Ask Jeeves concept site. After parting ways, he went on to work for Informix before reconnecting with Gruener in 1995. From 1995 to 2006, Chevsky worked on question answering and information-retrieval technologies at Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com ). Subsequently, he served as Vice President of Engineering at Symantec Corporation in its Consumer Business Unit (known for its Norton brand), developing web security technologies such as Norton Safe Web . From 2009 to 2011, he served as Vice President of Product Development, Operations & IT for YouSendIt (now Hightail ). In July 2011, Chevsky
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#1733202784513516-589: Is favored by the Google search engine. Furthermore, Vogel stated that native advertising is a marketing initiative that he would like to explore with caution, as "it's a really big opportunity to let marketers talk to our audience in the voice that they're already comfortable with." In April 2014, Vogel revealed to the media that the About.com team had grown from 100 employees to 176, and the number of site contributors had increased by 20 percent. The company's developers updated
559-479: Is located at 555 City Center , in the Oakland City Center development in downtown Oakland, California . Ask.com was originally known as Ask Jeeves, "Jeeves" being the name of a "gentleman's personal gentleman", or valet , fetching answers to any question asked. The character was named after Jeeves , Bertie Wooster 's valet in the fictional works of P. G. Wodehouse . The original idea of Ask Jeeves
602-589: The localization process, the China initiative—led by Matt Roberts, who became the CEO of Abang.com, and Wen-Wei Wang, the vice president of technology for the launch—was named "Abang" because the Chinese character "bang" refers to the concept of a group or community. The About Group generated US$ 102.7 million in 2007, which represented a 135-percent increase from the time of the Times Co. acquisition. Meyer stepped down from
645-540: The 2009 Bud Shootout where it failed to finish the race, but subsequently returned strongly, placing as high as 5th in a March 1, 2009, Shelby 427 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway . Ask.com's foray into NASCAR represented the first instance of its venture into what it terms " Super Verticals ". 37°48′13″N 122°16′31″W / 37.80361°N 122.27528°W / 37.80361; -122.27528 Gary Chevsky Gary Chevsky (born September 11, 1972 in Odesa )
688-461: The About.com brand was retired, despite its profitability, to make way for a new business model. The company refocused on vertical markets through its niche websites: The Balance (personal finance), Lifewire (tech), The Spruce (home and food), VeryWell (health), TripSavvy (travel), and ThoughtCo (education). On March 29, 2018, Dotdash won Digiday's Publisher of the Year. In July of
731-546: The Ask Kids search engine designed for children. In April 2009, for the UK version of Ask.com, Jeeves was redesigned as a CGI character and the website was named once again Ask Jeeves, though international versions were still just Ask.com. His image remained on the UK website until July 21, 2016, though the Ask Jeeves name would continue to be used until September 21, 2016, when the website was renamed Ask. On July 26, 2010, Ask.com released
774-547: The NASDAQ stock exchange from July 1999 to July 2005, using the ticker symbol ASKJ. In July 2005, the ASKJ ticker was retired upon the acquisition by IAC, valued at US$ 1.85 billion. In 2012, Ask.com made two acquisitions as part of a larger strategy to offer more content on the Ask.com website. On July 2, 2012, Ask.com purchased content discovery start-up nRelate for an undisclosed amount. That
817-595: The United States. Available on the web and as a mobile app, ASKfm generates an estimated 20,000 questions per minute with approximately 45 percent of its mobile monthly active users logging in daily. As of 2014, the mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times. In 2021, Ask re-initiated its function SymptomFind and introduced the new finance-based site Ask Money . From November 1999, in some areas Ask Jeeves advertised on produce stickers on apples, oranges and bananas. Questions such as "How many calories in
860-489: The acquisition of Meredith 's magazine and other non-broadcast assets (including the former Time Inc. assets) for $ 2.7 billion, forming a new entity called Dotdash Meredith. The transaction was finalized on December 1. On February 9, 2022, Dotdash CEO Neil Vogel issued a memo revealing that six former Meredith Corporation magazines ( Entertainment Weekly , InStyle , EatingWell , Health , Parents , and People en Español ) would cease print circulation and switch to
903-513: The acquisition of Liquor.com. On February 4, 2020, Dotdash announced the acquisition of TreeHugger and Mother Nature Network. In June, Dotdash was named Digiday's Publisher of the Year in Digiday's Media Awards 2020. The Spruce won for Best User Experience and CEO Neil Vogel won Executive of the Year. On September 22, Dotdash announced that it acquired Simply Recipes and Serious Eats from Fexy Media. On October 6, 2021, Dotdash announced
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#1733202784513946-514: The autumn of 2011. Instead of national advertising, Ask emphasized local markets. During the summer of 2012, initiated a national cinema campaign, along with other out-of-home tactics in certain markets such as New York and Seattle . As part of a Seattle-based local market effort, Ask.com initiated its campaign "You Asked We Answered" during 2012, in which the company "answered" residents' main complaints about living in their city, including easing morning commutes and stadium traffic, as well as keeping
989-473: The chief executive role in March 2008 and was replaced by Cella Irvine, who previously worked for Hearst Corp. and Microsoft Corp. In April 2011, Irvine launched the About en Español website, which was About's first Spanish-language channel and initially featured nine topics, including movies and makeup, that were to be expanded by around 100 by the start of 2012. The launch was part of an overall strategy that included
1032-486: The company outsourced its web search technology and revived its function a question and answer site . The business's president, Douglas Leeds became CEO in 2010. Three venture capital companies, Highland Capital Partners , Institutional Venture Partners , and The RODA Group were early investors. Ask.com is owned currently by InterActiveCorp (IAC), using the Nasdaq symbol Nasdaq : IAC , and its corporate headquarters
1075-481: The local Parks and Recreation department's wading pools open. On January 14, 2009, Ask.com became the official sponsor of 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Bobby Labonte 's No. 96 Ford . Ask would become the official search engine of NASCAR. Ask.com was the primary sponsor for the No. 96 for 18 of the first 21 races and had rights to increase this to a total of 29 races that season. The Ask.com car debuted in
1118-551: The marketing and media company Alloy Inc., a role that he left to cofound the Recognition Media marketing business that is responsible for producing the annual Webby Awards event, as well as the Internet Week NY and Europe events. Vogel was selected by Business Insider for its 2012 "The Coolest People In New York Tech This Year" list, for his work as a venture partner of FirstMark Capital. As of May 2013 , About.com
1161-488: The needs of both users and advertisers, the redesign sought to create an improved user experience and facilitate social sharing, including the addition of social media buttons that were not featured at the time of Vogel's appointment. On May 2, 2017, IAC announced the completed rebranding of About.com to Dotdash, after about a year of transition. CEO Neil Vogel said that the company had lost mind share and needed to change their marketing strategy. According to WIRED ,
1204-745: The preceding eight-month period: UCompareHealthCare.com and Calorie-Count.com. Initially conceived of in January 2007, About.com's first fully owned foreign venture, the China-based Abang.com, debuted in December 2007. At the time of the launch, the company had a Japan-based online entity, Allabout.co.jp, but it functioned under a licensing agreement. By January 2008, the China site consisted of around 25 employees, as well as 80 guides who were responsible for article production within seven categories: Fashion, Food, Health, Hobbies, Pets, Digital, and Travel. As part of
1247-467: The sale was finalized. At the time of the IAC acquisition, which was signed on August 26, 2012, About.com consisted of nearly 1,000 topic sites and over three million unique articles, while, in traffic terms, Alexa Internet ranked the site as number 37 in the U.S. and 80 in the global context. On April 2, 2013, Neil Vogel became the new CEO of About.com. Up until March 2003, Vogel was a key executive member of
1290-608: The same year, Dotdash acquired Investopedia . On October 15, TripSavvy launched the Editors' Choice Awards. On January 8, 2019, Dotdash announced the acquisition of Byrdie (beauty) and MyDomaine (women's lifestyle) from Clique Brands. On May 15, Dotdash announced the acquisition of Brides from Conde Nast . In the spring of 2019, Dotdash's home site, The Spruce , announced the launch of their first-ever paint collection, The Spruce Best Home, in partnership with KILZ and sold exclusively on Amazon . On October 1, Dotdash announced
1333-470: The search function, with the loss of 130 search engineering jobs, because it could not compete against more popular search engines such as Google . Earlier in the year, Ask had initiated a Q&A community for generating answers from real people as opposed to search algorithms, then combined this with its question-and–answer repository, utilizing its extensive history of archived query data to search sites that provide answers to questions people have. To avoid
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1376-470: The time of the acquisition announcement, About Inc. was measured at US$ 133 million in cash and no debt (Sept. 30, 2000), while the Media Metrix company tallied 21 million unique monthly visitors—making it the seventh-most-visited "network of sites" at the time—a network of over 700 topic sites, sorted into 36 areas and 50,000 subjects, and approximately 4,000 advertisers. Following the purchase, which
1419-519: The website's backend to be capable of handling a greater degree of interactivity at the front end, while a major emphasis was placed on responsive web design, as the traffic from mobile devices and tablets was measured at nearly 40 percent. The About.com website was relaunched in September 2014, following a significant redesign that expanded upon the new homepage that debuted in July 2014. Based on an analysis of
1462-616: Was acquired in 2018 by IMVU , a social 3D world company, with Chevsky coming onboard as an executive advisor. In 2021, he joined RingCentral as Vice President of Collaboration. He immigrated to the United States in 1988 and settled in San Francisco, California . Chevsky studied Computer Science at the University of California Berkeley . He holds 5 patents in the area of natural language processing and search/information retrieval, and
1505-411: Was acquired by IAC . In February 2006, the name "Jeeves" was eliminated from Ask Jeeves and the search engine renamed Ask. On May 16, 2006, Ask implemented a "Binoculars Site Preview" into its search results. On search results pages, the "binoculars" let searchers have a preview of the page they could visit with a mouse-over activating a pop-up screenshot. On June 5, 2007, Ask.com was redesigned with
1548-420: Was appointed as About Inc.'s president and CEO, but he was soon replaced by Scott Meyer in May 2005. In March 2007, About.com's patronage was measured at 33.5 million unique visitors. On May 7, 2007, About Inc. acquired ConsumerSearch.com—a site that generated 3 million unique monthly visitors during the first quarter of 2007—for US$ 33 million in cash following two other purchases that were made in
1591-440: Was finalized in the first quarter of 2001, the combined company was called "Primedia" and Kurnit remained chief executive officer (CEO). In February 2005, The New York Times Company (Times Co.) announced it was buying About.com, a purchase that was completed in the first half of the year for US$ 410 million. Google and Yahoo! were reportedly among the other bidders. Following the Times Co. acquisition, Peter C. Horan
1634-404: Was followed by the company's acquisition of expert advice and information site About.com , which closed in September 2012. On August 14, 2014, Ask.com acquired popular social networking website ASKfm , where users can ask other users questions, with the option of anonymity. As of August 14, 2014, Ask.fm had 180 million monthly unique users in more than 150 countries, with its largest user base in
1677-525: Was hired at Tango.me, a video calling company, to oversee engineering. Chevsky went on to become the President of Tango, which during his tenure grew from less than 10 million to over 400 million users worldwide. In 2017, Chevsky envisioned the future of video communication in virtual reality and started an effort at Tango around Social VR, eventually leading the spin-off of the project into a stand-alone company StayUp Inc., with Chevsky as founder and CEO. StayUp
1720-667: Was named CEO of the About Group, after the company's second-quarter revenues totaled US$ 27.8 million. Jean previously served as About's chief financial officer (CFO) and was promoted on September 1, 2011. A media report published in August 2012 indicated that Answers.com had reached a preliminary agreement to acquire About.com for US$ 270 million. However, on August 26, Barry Diller 's IAC announced that it would acquire About.com instead for US$ 300 million in cash. A source for TechCrunch later confirmed that Answers.com's offer
1763-415: Was receiving about 84 million unique monthly visitors. Following his appointment, Vogel's overall plan for About focused on social, mobile, and user experience, with an emphasis on increasing the amount of time that users remain on the site, rather than attracting people in the first instance. Vogel also stressed the importance of monetization in his numerous post-appointment interviews and he included
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1806-469: Was reportedly valued at US$ 270 million, but consisted of debt and equity in Answers.com. In the corresponding press release, IAC explained that the acquisition would help bolster and accompany its existing properties, such as the Ask.com web search engine . Jean fulfilled her role as chief executive during the transition period, while ownership was transferred to IAC, and then left About.com shortly after
1849-430: Was to allow users to get answers to questions in everyday, natural language , and traditional keyword searching. The current Ask.com still provides this for mathematics, dictionary, and conversion questions. Ask Jeeves was initiated as a beta version during mid-April 1997 and was initiated completely on June 1, 1997. On September 18, 2001, Ask Jeeves acquired Teoma for more than $ 1.5 million. In July 2005, Ask Jeeves
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