Rhianna will miss the Ask Jeeves Butler

Sometimes progress erases the fun memories.
Remember what a great icon Ask Jeeves was? He seemed to exude loyalty as he answered queries in a no-nonsense manner.

Gee, nothing is guaranteed anymore. Even butlers lose their jobs.

AskJeeves fires its butler, speeds up Web search

"AskJeeves, the fourth most popular U.S. Internet search site, started out in 1996 by promising concrete answers to questions posed by Web users. Jeeves, the butler character, was meant to symbolize this theoretically better form of service.

A novelty for many Web users at first, AskJeeves struggled to attract a regular following. Having computers answer questions proved harder than many users first hoped.

'It was a place that overpromised and underdelivered during the dot-com days,' Lanzone said. 'To the majority of consumers AskJeeves is still a place for questions and answers.'"