# Ask Media Group

> Ask Media Group is an IAC-owned performance marketing and digital publishing business descended from Ask Jeeves. It acquires intent-rich traffic through search, social, display, native, and affiliate channels, then monetizes visits through paid search listings, display advertising, affiliate commerce, and retention products. Its operating toolkit includes bidding AI, a search index, keyword technology, rapid testing, yield optimization, and fraud detection. The group says its search and content properties have reached 245 million unique monthly visits, although its best-known service, Ask.com, closed on May 1, 2026 after nearly three decades online.

- **Founded:** 1996
- **Headquarters:** New York City, United States
- **Founders:** Garrett Gruener (Co-founder of Ask Jeeves), David Warthen (Co-founder and founding CTO of Ask Jeeves)
- **Team size:** Approximately 89 employees in supplied company data; LinkedIn lists the company in the 51-200 employee band.
- **Products:** Ask.com, Search and content sites, Performance marketing, Proprietary search and bidding technology, Yield and lifetime-value tools
- **Notable:** Ask Jeeves helped popularize natural-language web queries before conversational interfaces became mainstream., Ask Jeeves completed an initial public offering in 1999 and later became the subject of a $1.85 billion IAC acquisition agreement in 2005., The company accumulated more than 25 years of search and audience-acquisition expertise.

## Products & services

- **Ask.com** — The question-and-answer and search service descended from Ask Jeeves; it officially closed on May 1, 2026.
- **Search and content sites** — A portfolio of consumer sites spanning high-value verticals including health, finance, shopping, and everyday how-to information.
- **Performance marketing** — Traffic acquisition through search engine marketing, social, display, native advertising, and affiliate channels.
- **Proprietary search and bidding technology** — A search index, related and suggested keyword systems, and a marketing technology platform with bidding AI.
- **Yield and lifetime-value tools** — Rapid A/B testing, paid-listing monetization support, affiliate management, fraud and bot detection, and push notifications.
- **ConsumerSearch** — A consumer product research site designed to simplify purchasing decisions across household, technology, outdoor, and personal-care categories.

## Achievements

- Ask Jeeves helped popularize natural-language web queries before conversational interfaces became mainstream.
- Ask Jeeves completed an initial public offering in 1999 and later became the subject of a $1.85 billion IAC acquisition agreement in 2005.
- The company accumulated more than 25 years of search and audience-acquisition expertise.
- Ask Media Group has reported 245 million unique monthly site visits and 500 million monthly page views across its portfolio.
- The group built an integrated stack spanning keyword acquisition, bidding AI, search indexing, testing, monetization, affiliate management, and bot detection.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Ask.com officially closed on May 1 as IAC discontinued its search business.
- **2026-02** — IAC reported Ask Media Group revenue of $173.5 million for 2025, down from $320.9 million in 2024.
- **2025-12** — IAC disclosed that Google had issued a notice preventing automatic renewal of the paid-listings services agreement beyond March 31, 2026; negotiations over revised terms were uncertain.
- **2025-12** — IAC reported a 71% year-over-year decline in Ask Media Group’s fourth-quarter revenue, attributing the fall to frequent Google algorithm and policy changes and reduced affiliate-channel marketing.

## Links

- Website: https://www.askmediagroup.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/askmediagroup
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/askdotcom

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ask-media-group
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-10