We’ve actually talked about doing that. That’s really what our study did – asked real users to try them all out, and tell us what they preferred – and the answer was Jeeves.

You mean you’ll go to cybercafes and set up little booths….

Actually, a very high percentage of the people who took the survey became Jeeves users. We got lots of email that week saying people were going to stick with Jeeves. So doing the survey in effect was a marketing campaign.

Of course, when the Pepsi Challenge was out campaigning, I always took the survey, and correctly identified the Coke, and told the Pepsi people I liked Coke better….

Actually cola doesn’t take very good if you think about it. You have to acquire the taste. Cola is proof of the success of marketing. But Jeeves is very tasty from the first use.

Let’s talk about your company’s plans to use AskJeeves technology for specialized purposes, such as customer support databases or intranet applications.

We’re building custom versions of Jeeves knowledge bases for specific applications – for company Web sites. The public version of Jeeves at aj.com is very, very broad. You can ask it about anything, and it’s likely to know the answer. But the public version is not particularly deep – you can’t ask it the most specific question within a category and get an answer.

What we’re doing is building custom knowledge bases on behalf of specific customers. One example might be customer support databases. Let’s say you buy a PC via mail order from one of the major vendors, such as Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, or IBM. Let’s say afterwords you have a technical support question. Today, you have to call an 800 number and wait for a human customer support rep (CSR) to handle the call. The CSR relies on his or her own knowledge, plus a database of technical information, to try to solve your problem.

Let’s say we applied Jeeves technology to [a fictional PC vendor named GateDellPaq]. GateDellPaq already has a very complete Web site offering lots of technical information. In fact, the answer to your problem probably already appears on GateDellPaq’s Web site. But finding the answer to your specific problem using conventional keyword searching can be very hard.

What we’d do is this: We would build a question-and-answer database from all the information on GateDellPaq’s Web site, so that your question can be matched to the answer available on that site efficiently. Such a site would not be very broad in scope – it’d only cover GateDellPaq computers – but it would be very deep in terms of its knowledge.

Would customer support reps themselves use Jeeves?

Absolutely! If a customer chooses to call the 800 number instead of using GateDellPaq’s Jeeves database, if the CSR didn’t know the answer to a question off the top of his or her head, he or she would actually use the same question database as users.

What are some of the applications that companies might apply Jeeves for behind the firewall – on their Intranets?

We think a natural application is human resources (HR) information. "How do I change my deductions for the 401(K) plan?" "How do I apply for time off under the Family Medical Leave Act?" These are the kinds of questions real employees have, and Jeeves is perfect for helping them find the answers.