Ask Media Group
The company behind Ask.com, for years a large search-to-search arbitrage operator, closed by IAC on 1 May 2026.
Oakland, California, USA · founded 1996 · ask.com
What Ask Media Group does
Ask Jeeves launched in the 1990s as a search engine you could ask questions in plain English. IAC bought it in 2005 for $1.85 billion. In 2010 it stopped building its own search technology and leaned on partners for results and ads.
From then on the business, later named Ask Media Group, was largely marketing. It ran Ask.com and a family of question-and-answer sites, bought visitors through search and other ads, and earned money when those visitors clicked sponsored listings supplied by a search partner. That is Search-to-search arbitrage at industrial scale.
IAC closed it. A notice on Ask.com said the company had decided to discontinue its search business and that Ask.com closed on 1 May 2026. Trade press tied the decision to AI tools that answer questions directly, which leaves fewer clicks to resell.
How it makes money
Earned a share of search-ad revenue on its own results pages, less the cost of the advertising that brought visitors in.
Where it meets invalid traffic
Its traffic was mostly bought from search engines themselves, so the usual question was value to advertisers rather than bots.
Products
- Ask.com
- Question-and-answer sites