As I've reported this morning, chunky butler Jeeves is going to be making his final appearance later this month before being "retired" as the face of the Ask search engine.
The march of time affects us all, of course. In fact, Jeeves 1.0 (the chubby-necked version seen here on the right) was replaced a while back with the smarter, slicker version that we see above on the left. But the chill hand of death - or the dole queue - has finally caught up with the little guy.
Or, as Ask told me:
"When we launched it was very strong positioning, but the internet has moved on and consumers have moved on. They don't understand the relevance of him any more: it's time to move the brand on too."
Ah, Jeeves, how we'll miss you. Well, maybe not.
But I think this little moment in history could mean that the biggest mystery on the internet will go unsolved: we never knew what Jeeves' first name was. Was it, like the PG Wodehouse character, Reginald? I'd like to think, in fact, that perhaps it was simply "Ask". At least then his name will live on into the future.
Related: Save Jeeves blog Website of Marcos Sorenson, Jeeves illustrator
