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Reed Business Information CEO James Casella Joins Ask Jeeves Board of Directors

EMERYVILLE, Calif., May 18, 2004 -- Ask Jeeves, Inc.(R) (ASKJ) , one of the fastest growing web search properties on the Internet, today announced that James ("Jim") Casella has joined the Ask Jeeves' board of directors. Casella is the former president and CEO of PennNet -- now PennEnergy -- and the former COO of integrated media company IDG, among other positions throughout his career. He joins current board members Skip Battle, Steve Berkowitz, David Carlick, Joshua Goldman, Garret Greuner, James Kirsner, and Geoffrey Yang.
"Having worked with Jim at IDG [International Data Group], a company whose worldwide assets exceeded $2 billion, I expect his insight will be invaluable as Ask Jeeves looks to compete in a market estimated to be worth $7 billion by 2007," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask Jeeves Inc. Casella has also been tapped to consult with the Ask Jeeves executive team on optimizing consumer and advertiser relationships: "Jim and I both believe there is a tremendous opportunity to bring more traditional offline advertisers into the online search environment, where the consumer and advertiser are connected through relevant, powerful search," continued Berkowitz.

In addition to his established tenure in media and technology, Casella has managed businesses in more than 80 countries worldwide and will provide valuable perspective to Ask Jeeves as it looks to expand its brands across foreign markets.

"I am honored to join the Ask Jeeves Board of Directors," said Casella. "The Company is extremely well-positioned for growth and I see exciting opportunities in its future. I hope that my experience will be an asset as the Company continues to expand."

From October 2000 until he joined Reed Business Information in January 2002, Casella served as CEO and Vice Chairman of Round1, a venture capital-backed company that provided enterprise-level financial services software for the private capital markets. Prior to his position with Round1, Mr. Casella served as the first President and CEO of PennNet -- now PennEnergy -- the Internet division of PennWell and a world leader in B2B information, services, and e-commerce for strategic markets worldwide.

From 1994 to 1999, Casella served as Chief Operating Officer of IDG where he oversaw a wide scope of business publishing operations -- 82 different business units worldwide -- and led IDG through a period of tremendous growth. Casella was directly involved with taking IDG Books public in July 1998 -- the company's first business unit to be taken public in 35 years. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Casella served as President and Chief Operating Officer of IDG's InfoWorld Publishing Inc., an industry-leading information technology media enterprise.

Before joining IDG, Mr. Casella co-founded and served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Signal Research, Inc., a publisher of electric entertainment magazines and books, and held several positions at Capital Cities/ABC Consumer Magazines. Casella also served as vice president of sales and marketing for HBJ Media Systems, a unit of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, from 1978 to 1982 and began his publishing career in 1971 as a sales representative with college textbook publisher Appleton Century Crofts, a division of Meredith Corporation.

Casella serves as a member of PennEnergy's board of directors and is a former board and executive committee member of BPA International and former board member of IDG Books. He received his BA cum laude from Boston College in 1970.

About Ask Jeeves, Inc.

As one of the fastest growing web properties on the Internet, Ask Jeeves, Inc. provides consumers and advertisers with information retrieval products across a diverse portfolio of Web sites, portals and desktop search applications. Ask Jeeves' search and search-based portal brands include: Ask Jeeves (Ask.com and Ask.co.uk); Ask Jeeves for Kids (AJKids.com); Excite (excite.com); iWon (iwon.com); My Search (mysearch.com); My Way (myway.com); My Web Search (mywebsearch.com) and Teoma (teoma.com). Ask Jeeves also owns the search technology Teoma, proprietary natural language processing technology, as well as portal and ad serving technologies. In addition to powering several of the Ask Jeeves brands, the Company syndicates its technologies to help companies increase revenue through powerful search. Ask Jeeves' advertising services, which includes Ask Jeeves, The Excite Network, and MaxOnline, provides advertisers with targeted tools to reach a broad base of highly valuable customers. Ask Jeeves, Inc. is headquartered in Emeryville, California, with offices throughout the United States, as well as in London, Dublin, and Tokyo.

For more information, visit http://www.AskJeevesInc.com or call 510-985-7400.

NOTE: Ask Jeeves, Ask.com, Teoma, My Way, My Search, My Web Search, iWon, Excite and MaxOnline are registered trademarks of Ask Jeeves, Inc. or its subsidiaries.

Contacts: Colby Zintl
Corporate Communications,
510-985-7640
czintl@askjeeves.com
Derrick Nueman, Investor Relations
510-985-7485
dnueman@askjeeves.com

http://www.AskJeevesInc.com

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