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Let me start off by saying that I do not know exactly when Ask launched its French version of the engine. It might have been today, I do not see any press releases on it. But there is a brand new thread on the topic at Cre8asite forums named Ask in France where member Nadir points out the Ask logo on http://fr.ask.com/ does not have the "Jeeves" portion in the logo. It is not only Ask France, it is on Ask España launched a few months ago and also no "Jeeves" name on Ask.jp について. However, "Jeeves" is written out at http://uk.ask.com/ and all of them have the Jeeves character logo.
I wish I would have known if the Japan and Mexician versions had Jeeves written out when they launched. Anyway, it is a subtle thing to notice and it may be part of the Ask Jeeves transition to be known as just Ask.
Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.
Comments:
Michel
12/27/2005 03:43 pm
Ask France Beta was launched on december 14: http://www.netwizz.net/blog/2005/12/14/200-ask-jeeves-france-est-arrive
Remi van Beekum
12/27/2005 03:54 pm
They also released the Dutch version of Ask a few days ago. (without any marketing) See: http://nl.ask.com/ Also without the 'Jeeves'.
emanuele
12/27/2005 05:05 pm
there is also the the italian version, everyone say when is released?
Remi
12/27/2005 06:19 pm
And a German version: http://de.ask.com/ Looks like they finally target western Europe like they promised at the SES in february.
Nadir
12/27/2005 09:03 pm
Yes, Ask was actually launched on Dec 14th, <a href="http://www.echosdunet.net/news/index.php?id_news=1712">http://www.echosdunet.net/news/index.php?id_news=1712</a> As for the "missing" Jeeves, I do think that it's because Jeeves is an English name only, and people wouldn't have understood why a search engine is called "Ask Jeeves". I think ask.com is definitely the best way to go for their worldwide expansion.