Ask brings Jeeves back from dead

Search engine Ask.com has revived the Jeeves character three years after giving him the boot.

Jeeves has returned due to public demand, Ask.com said, claiming that the Ask Jeeves brand is on a par with Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon and Facebook in internet terms.

Ask.com's Cesar Mascaraque told Web User: "We are bringing back Jeeves because users want him back. This is the right thing for us to do in the UK."

According to Mascaraque, users had been asking where the butler had gone and in a YouGov-commissioned survey the majority of respondents wanted him to return.

Jeeves will appear on TV advertising this week and will also have a Facebook profile and Twitter account, the company said. He is only returning to the UK site of Ask.com.

As well as bringing back Jeeves, Mascaraque also told Web User that the company had been working hard on improving the relevance of results and the speed at which they were delivered, claiming that the majority of requests are answered in just under half a second.

Ask announced the sacking of Jeeves in September 2005 and he left the site in 2006.

The search engine claims to have 15 million monthly UK visitors.

Are you pleased to see Jeeves back? Have your say in the Web User forums.