Yahoo’s Parting Shot as Google Answers Fades Away
Yesterday, Google Answers announced that they would be closing the book and giving no more answers. And, it took little time for Yahoo! to rub the salt in the wound and try to sway some researchers their way:
Today we learned that Google Answers is closing. That’s a shame because some great knowledge was created on that service by the Google Answers Researchers.
The Yahoo! Answers community continues to thrive and grow. We believe in the power of community; in people helping people get answers to their questions.
So, this is an open invitation for those researchers to join us. Please consider sharing your knowledge with millions of people on Yahoo! Answers; connect with users with shared interests; get answers to all your questions; and help build the world’s most vibrant and trusted community.
The folks who are researchers and information specialists have been at this longer than us, and there’s a lot we can learn from you. We’ve set up a Yahoo! Group for former Google Answers Researchers and we’d prefer that one of the exGARs help moderate the group.
Yahoo does have the upper hand on market share, but apparently they have not grown up too much!
Here are what others are saying:
Google has decided to shut down Google Answers. In my personal opinion, this was the right call. Products from years ago often need overhauls and rewrites or else the underlying code grows stagnant, and the Answers code launched in 2002.
Matt Cutts
Google has canned its Google Answers program, which was the first major search operated question & answer service. Simply enough, Googlers would rather use the Google search engine to find answers to their questions, or turn to social question & answer services which are thriving due to their active member base.
Loren Baker
The Google bloggers do not say why the project is closed down, though. A lack of visitors may be one reason.
Pandia
Google has admitted defeat in the Q&A arena, the main reason probably being that Google Answers was falling far, far behind Yahoo! Answers. The Google pay-per-answer formula has been a failure.
The Yahoo! staff is doing their best not to gloat, arguing that ‘some great knowledge was created on that service by the Google Answers Researchers.
Pandia
So… serve up some eggnog, get comfortable and cruise through Google Answers before they wrap up their toy and whisk it away. It’s a great little resource that could provide you with lists of holiday link cheer!
Debra Mastler
Yahoo has had some hard knocks lately, but when Google Answers went down, Yahoo’s PR dept. couldn’t help themselves.
I await the posthumous email from Jeeves, and the angle Microsoft might take.
John Battelle
Yahoo Answers still has a lot to do, they are not the only gig, MSN’s QnA Live may be a new-comer to the pay for answers game, but the new OS and Office suite unveiled today along with the new Office Live platform (that appears to be closing bCentral) may bring new users to their side.
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