Ask.com shutters, as its owner IAC "continues to sharpen its focus"; a dot-com era icon, Ask Jeeves launched in 1997, a year before Google (Chase DiBenedetto/Mashable)

Chase DiBenedetto / Mashable: Ask.com shutters, as its owner IAC “continues to sharpen its focus”; a dot-com era icon, Ask Jeeves launched in 1997, a year before Google — “As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com.