Ask Jeeves is a search engine with an unusual mascot: a proper English butler who "understands" natural language queries. In 1991, Berkeley venture capitalist Garrett Gruener and software developer David Warthen envisioned an online portal that companies like CompuServe could use to translate English language questions into search strings. The two founders worked on other projects for a few years, but realized by 1995 that they could not ignore the growing power of the Internet - and thus Ask Jeeves was born from the seed of their original idea. In June 1996, Ask Jeeves incorporated with six people on board, and the site launched in April of the following year. The company was mainly funded by individual investors when traditional venture capital firms would not support the internet startup. By the end of 1999, the company had over 300 employees and corporate clients like Microsoft, Dell, and Toshiba, who use Ask Jeeves's natural language technology as part of their customer support services. Those initial individual investors who fronted $2.5 million in 1998 are today securing profits of $1.5 billion.

No question too obscure

Ask Jeeves operates on a very simple premise: people like to ask computers questions the same way that they would ask another person. With the help of several proprietary tools, Ask Jeeves strives to help its users find exactly what they're looking for on the Web. The company has a database of millions of question templates, each of which fits into a corresponding answer template that provides links to web sites providing information on the subject of the query. The use of "smart lists" eases use of the site by linking an individual question template to several answers, and Ask Jeeves's Questions Processing Engine (QPE) uses semantic and syntactic processing to enable computers to understand natural language questions. In March 1998, the company launched Ask Jeeves for Kids (www.ajkids.com), a children's version of the main site that filters out objectionable material.

In an effort to personalize the Internet, Ask Jeeves has since launched its VOIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) strategy through a technology swap agreement with Trillium Digital Systems. This service allows the company's corporate clients to hold real-time voice conversations with customers. In January 2000, Ask Jeeves also acquired Direct Hit Technologies Inc., a company that tracks and analyzes consumer behavior patterns, to provide more relevant answers to visitors of the Ask Jeeves site. Similarly, the launch of Webwide Navigational Services on portals such as MSN, Go2Net, and ZDNet will introduce new products like Jeeves Popularity Search, Jeeves Directory Search, and Jeeves Compare. Not only will these services provide a more relevant search for users, but it easily distinguishes the company from many of its competitors.

Waiting on corporate America

After Ask Jeeves went public in July 1999, the company inked deals with several corporate partners. It signed with Martha Stewart Living to provide answers to questions such as, "How much should I pay for my wedding?," and with companies like Hewlett-Packard to answer customer service questions. Indeed, Ask Jeeves hopes to develop its corporate question answering service to reach one-to-one revenue parity with its consumer question answering division; as of 1999, revenue from consumer services outpaced those of corporate by about two to one. The company expects profitability by 2002, but until then is expected to bleed at a rate of more than $10 million per quarter. Revenues for 1999 rose to $22.0 million from $800,000 the year before, though net losses also increased to $52.9 million from $6.8 million in 1998. The company is now ranked 12th among portals/search engines, according to Nielson/NetRatings, and is a Top 30 site, according to research provided by Media Metrix.

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