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Google Answers Closing Up Shop

Posted by Zonk on from the now-how-will-we-know-things dept.

EricTheGreen writes "It isn't often that Google completely kills a product, which makes the announcement of the end of Google Answers noteworthy. I find it particularly interesting, given that there's clearly a market for this service. Yahoo!'s offering continues to flourish, it seems ... so what made Yahoo's service more attractive than Google's?" From the blog post: "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. 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."

9 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. It failed... by Spazntwich · · Score: 4, Funny

    because of the obviously superior and free competing product Slashdot offers.

    Got a question?

    Chances are if Soviet Russian gay nigger overlords aren't the answer, fish posters and licensing trolls are.

    And God bless every one of them.

  2. OSTG announces: Slashdot answers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The horror.

  3. Answer to "Why is Google Answers Closing?" by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Funny
    Because the format didn't help with definitive answers to imperative questions like whether "our building might be on fire", even though the "experts" supplied the correct answer, sometimes immediately.

    Question
    Subject: google headquarters, flammability of
    Category: Miscellaneous
    Asked by: mala-ga
    List Price: $2.00 Posted: 29 Sep 2004 16:06 PDT
    Expires: 29 Oct 2004 16:06 PDT
    Question ID: 408127

    Is Google HQ on fire right now? My wife drove your campus and saw
    smoke. Are you guys okay? I can probably get a ladder if you need it.

    Answer Log in to add an answer
    There is no answer at this time.

    Comments Log in to add a comment
    Subject: Re: google headquarters, flammability of
    From: antfugue-ga on 30 Sep 2004 11:56 PDT

    The city fire department was practicing on an abandoned building near
    Google HQ. Google HQ's Flamability Index remains unchanged.
    --

    --
    make install -not war

  4. Re:Because Google Answers weren't free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?

  5. Who's yer daddy? by fo0bar · · Score: 4, Funny

    When Google Answers first opened up, I thought I'd find out the answer to the age-old question, who's yer daddy?

    Turns out it's usually the one who married yer mommy. But not always.

  6. Question by Cygnus78 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Has anyone asked if they can keep it open ?

  7. Re:Well.. by VGPowerlord · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sorry, my mind is having trouble grasping the concept of someone named SQLGuru not using boolean operators.

    --
    GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  8. It must be said by Jorkapp · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was going to get a Google answer as to why Google answers was closing their doors, but alas.

    --
    Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
  9. Re:Google Slashdotted??!?! by natrius · · Score: 2, Funny

    Then again, it could've been an actual typo this time.