What's Become of Ask.com's Jeeves?

I was lately discussing one of my favorite topics, search engines, with a colleague, and the conversation turned to everyone's favorite information butler, Jeeves. He formerly had his own website, AskJeeves.com, but had apparently been snubbed when the site changed to simply Ask.com in February, 2006.

According to Ask.com (or at least the British version of this site, which Jeeves is presumably more involved with), Jeeves is in retirement and is cruising around the world on his much-loved boat. I, for one, am quite relieved, as I feared that he may have become another victim of layoffs or perhaps even age discrimination.

I wish Jeeves all the best in his retirement!

(On a related note, Ask.com has just this week changed focus and will no longer be competing directly against Google or Yahoo!. Instead, according to MSNBC, it has presumably fine-tuned its algorithm to focus on a "narrower market consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives.")