Jeeves in the offing for internet search engine

Ask.com has shelved its three year re-branding drive and will today re-launch as AskJeeves.com.

The group is bringing back the fictional butler – created by PG Wodehouse in his series of Jeeves and Wooster novels – who fronted the search engine when it was first launched in 1997. The move came after Ask found that most users better recognised the original branding. The re-branding to Ask Jeeves will only be in the UK.

“Jeeves was brought back after popular demand from those who wanted a more personalised touch and a more British feel to search engines,” the company said.

Ask Jeeves’ managing director Cesar Mascaraque said the group has overhauled the look of the site, speeded it up and tailored the search results more strictly. Ask currently has about 15 million unique users per month in the UK and is the tenth most popular website.