Let's all have a moment of silence for the Ask Jeeves butler, who will be going to where ever it is used up, cyber-mascots go. This via Aaron Wall's SEO Book, a quote from the The Street:

"Jeeves is out of a job.

IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) is dropping the butler who doubles as the mascot of its recently acquired Ask Jeeves online search business.

The New York-based online empire, which acquired Ask Jeeves for $1.9 billion in July, plans to rebrand the Web site as Ask.com, CEO Barry Diller said Wednesday at an investment conference."

Okay, maybe the butler is not what all the cool kids like these days, but it's a brand. It's recognizable. When someone says "jeeves", more often than not, they're talking about the search engine. Now they're going to change it to the streamlined "Ask", and I guess they have their reasons, but to me it seems like they're kind of shooting themselves in the foot to spite their face (how's that for a mixed metaphor!).