Google Answers Stops Answering Questions
Google is going to stop answering questions at Google Answers. However, the Google Answers database will remain online.Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time -- and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product. Later this week, we will stop accepting new questions in Google Answers, the very first project we worked on here. The project started with a rough idea from Larry Page, and a small 4-person team turned it into reality in less than 4 months. For two new grads, it was a crash course in building a scalable product, responding to customer requests, and discovering what questions are on people's minds.The Yahoo Answers team responds to the closing of Google Answers here (thx 8seek). There has also been a lot of discussion why Google Answers shut down in the blogosphere. You can see some of them here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Many of the bloggers say Google Answers wasn't as good and as competitive as some of Google's other services.
Google Answers taught us exactly how many tyrannosaurs are in a gallon of gasoline, why flies survive a good microwaving, and why you really shouldn't drink water emitted by your air conditioner. Even closer to home, we learned one afternoon that our building might be on fire.
The people who participated in Google Answers -- more than 800 of them over the years -- are a passionate group committed to helping people find the information they need, and we applaud them for sharing their incredible knowledge with everyone who wrote in.
If you have a chance, we encourage you to browse through the questions posted over the last 4+ years. Although we won't be accepting any new questions, the existing Qs and As are available. We'll stop accepting new Answers to questions by the end of the year.
Posted on December 1, 2006
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