Homeβ€Ί Search Engineβ€Ί smarter.com
Trusted

Yes β€” smarter.com looks safe

80/ 100 trust score
Industry: Search Engine Checked Jul 16, 2026 Search Engine average: 60 35 signals
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In plain English

Smarter.com is the domain behind the now-closed Ask.com, and it's clearly a legitimate property of IAC. The current page is a straightforward shutdown announcement. There are no signs of deception or risk, so you can treat this site as safe.

Cross-referenced 35 live signals from Google Safe Browsing, VirusTotal, WHOIS and more on Jul 16, 2026. How we score β†’

Where the score comes from

We look at six areas. Here's how smarter.com did in each.
85
Security

Solid security setup with a valid certificate and modern encryption. Google sees no threats, which is what you'd expect from a legitimate site.

90
Identity

This domain has been registered since 1998 and is owned by IAC, a major media company. The registrar and WHOIS protection are standard for an established business.

85
Reputation

Clean blacklists and a web archive history stretching back nearly three decades confirm this is not a fly-by-night operation. The site has moderate traffic, which fits a legacy search engine.

70
Transparency

The page directly explains what it is: a farewell to Ask.com. While there is no contact page or social media, the purpose is clear. For a static closure notice, this level of disclosure is adequate.

80
Compliance

A privacy policy is linked on the page. A terms of service document is absent, but for a non-commercial informational page that collects no data, that is not a real compliance gap.

80
Infrastructure

Fast CDN delivery via Fastly and reliable hosting on GitHub Pages. Email authentication is configured, and the site resolves to multiple IPs. No DNSSEC, but that's a minor omission for a static site.

What we checked

The 35 signals behind this report.
Security & Transport
Certificate Issuer
Let's Encrypt
Google Web Risk
Clean
SSL Certificate
Valid
Security Headers
0 of 6
Server
GitHub.com
TLS Version
TLS 1.3
Identity & WHOIS
About Page
Not found
Branding
Missing
Business Disclosure
Not found
Contact Info
Not found
Domain Age
28 years, 7 months
Domain Expiry
2028-04-27T04:00:00Z
Legal Pages
Partial
Registrar
MarkMonitor Inc.
Infrastructure & DNS
CDN
Fastly
DNS Blacklists
Clean
DNS Resolution
8 IP(s)
DNSSEC
Not enabled
DNSSEC
unsigned
Email (MX Records)
2 record(s)
Hosting Network (ASN)
AS54113 FASTLY
Name Servers
4 server(s)
Page Load Time
159ms
SPF Record
Present
Reputation & Reach
Page Heading
Every great search must come to an end.
Page Language
en
Page Title
A Farewell to Ask.com | 30 Years of Curiosity
Sitemap
Not found
Social Media Presence
None found
Structured Data
None found
Tranco Rank
Rank #91384
Trustpilot
No Trustpilot profile
Web Archive History
29 years
Website Status
Online
robots.txt
Not found

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80
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Smarter.com is the domain that powered Ask.com, a search engine that ran for 30 years before shutting down in 2026. The site you see today is a simple farewell page from IAC, the parent company. That context matters. Unlike unknown websites asking for money or data, this is a known brand wrapping up operations. The domain has been registered since 1998 and has a clean history across security scans and blacklists.

For anyone wondering about smarter.com reviews or whether smarter.com is a scam, the evidence points to a legitimate page. It does not request personal information or payments. If you are just reading the announcement, there is nothing to worry about. The missing contact page and lack of social media links are normal for a static closure notice. The site is hosted on reliable infrastructure and uses modern security. No red flags here.

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