Jeeves the butler reappears in the UK version of Ask.com.

In March 2006 the search engine Ask Jeeves sacked it’s helpful butler and became Ask.com.

Now the butler from P.G. Wodehouse’s stories about Wooster and Jeeves is back in a new 3D version.

The butler himself explains this over at the Ask.com — sorry, Ask Jeeves — site in the UK:

“I popped out three years ago to travel the world in a quest for knowledge and I’ve returned to Blighty armed with answers. During my sojourn research showed the public wanted me back, which I found jolly touching. And in that time the engineers toiled hard to make the site look better, work harder and be more personal…just like yours truly!”

The butler now appears in the right hand column of search result pages, giving searchers a list of alternative and more targeted search queries.

According to Sky Jeeves has been given a makeover by Oscar-winning animation and visual effects experts, Framestore, whose recent work includes The Golden Compass and Chronicles of Narnia.

Savile Row tailors Gieves and Hawkes have designed his new suit and tie, to be seen at uk.ask.com.

Search Engine Land reports that Ask polled their UK users and found that Jeeves had 83% brand awareness, even after retiring Jeeves three years ago. Ask.com scored 72 percent.

< - The old version of Jeeves.

Ask Jeeves will reintroduce the butler through a campaign of TV ads, radio ads, print ads and online ads, a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account.

This will not be the case in the US, though, — at least not yet — although Americans may see the smiling face of Jeeves if they go to askjeeves.com instead of ask.com.

Ask Jeeves has a market share of 3.5% in the UK, serving 15m monthly users.