: Venerable Jeeves has been pensioned off without celebration, leaving behind a stark atmosphere (the press release calls it “sleek”) for IACI’s search engine. Ask.com wants to be taken seriously so frivolities like a butler or a personality are no longer needed. Instead of answering questions, the focus is on providing enhanced search tools included web-based desktop search. CEO Steve Berkowitz explains in the press release: “People deserve a search engine that gives them the tools to get what they need faster, not just a bunch of links on a page. Ask.com takes search to the next level.”

Ask.com has some heavy lifting to do—acquire more than its 5.5 percent U.S. market share, serve as a hub for and integrate tools with other IACI properties, drive more traffic to its sibs. Transaction fees provide 60 percent of Ask’s profits, as the WSJ reports.

WSJ (sub. req.) looks at the advertising blitz en route; a multi-million-dollar campaign with the “Use Tools, Feel Human.”

SearchEngineWatch.com gets down to the nitty gritty.

AP:  Berkowitz is nothing if not pragmatic. “If some people are upset about the butler going away, so be it. ... As more people come to our site and are satisfied with the results they get, they are going to forget the butler.”

Related: Diller’s Plans With AskJeeves

— Diller’s IAC Plans Growth For Ask Jeeves Unit