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.

Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website based on that core program.

[7] The original idea of Ask Jeeves was to allow users to get answers to questions in everyday, natural language, and traditional keyword searching.

[11] In December 2007, Ask released the AskEraser feature,[12] allowing users to opt-out from tracking of search queries and IP and cookie values.

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.

[25] 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.

[34] From November 1999, in some areas Ask Jeeves advertised on produce stickers on apples, oranges and bananas.

[36][37] 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.

[38] After a hiatus from mass consumer marketing, Ask reinstated its website's format to emphasize questions and answers, and resumed advertising by television during the autumn of 2011.

During the summer of 2012, initiated a national cinema campaign,[40] along with other out-of-home tactics in certain markets such as New York and Seattle.

[41] As part of a Seattle-based local market effort, Ask.com initiated its campaign "You Asked We Answered"[42] 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 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.