Search company Ask is dropping the Teoma brand name in a further move to roll all of its brands into one. Jeeves, longtime mascot and search butler, was dropped from the site earlier this month.
The Teoma team has been a part of Ask Search Technology since Teoma’s September 2001 acquisition. Paul Gardi, formerly VP of search for Ask Jeeves and Teoma, is now leading IAC’s Advertising Solutions business. Teoma has powered Ask’s backend search since 2001 but the Teoma.com front-end always provided more advanced features than Ask. Teoma features have now been rolled into the Ask engine.
I’m sad to see the Teoma brand go since I remember chatting with the search team and using the search engine when it first launched.