Ask Jeeves gets new chairman

Ask Jeeves, the Web search service with a human touch, said Thursday it has appointed cofounder Garrett Gruener as chairman.

The site has suffered its share of dot-com gloom, with the loss of its chief executive and 25 percent of its staff following poor financial results last month. It has also come under criticism for being difficult to use, despite its ability to understand search requests phrased as plain-English questions.

Ask Jeeves operates a sister site in the UK, AskJeeves.co.uk.

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