Google loses one battle to the competition.
December 1, 2006 6:59 AM   Subscribe

Google Answers Goes 404. Is it too much competition from Yahoo! answers or Metafilter?
posted by JJ86 (21 comments total)
 
meta
posted by blind.wombat at 7:01 AM on December 1, 2006


REally, shouldn't this go to AxMe?
posted by DenOfSizer at 7:01 AM on December 1, 2006


I bet it was a legal liability issue.
posted by mecran01 at 7:02 AM on December 1, 2006


This thread is gonna go 404.
posted by spicynuts at 7:05 AM on December 1, 2006


odd that it should go now... it was around for a while
posted by Zinger at 7:23 AM on December 1, 2006


So was the Holy Roman Empire.
posted by Plutor at 7:29 AM on December 1, 2006


No one expects the demise of the Google Inquisition!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:32 AM on December 1, 2006


*ring*
*ring*
*ring*

OH GOD THEY'RE NOT ANSWERING

posted by cortex at 7:40 AM on December 1, 2006


It's not really 404, I mean, the page is still there.
posted by delmoi at 7:40 AM on December 1, 2006


Shh, delmoi. It was a beautiful metaphor.

RIP Google answers. I will always miss asking stupid questions to silly people and getting vauge, hilarious answers.
posted by tehloki at 8:04 AM on December 1, 2006


Like you can't do that here tehloki?

*waits for vaguely hilarious answer*
posted by Mister_A at 8:28 AM on December 1, 2006


Why, Google Answer? WHYYY???

*crickets*
posted by soundofsuburbia at 8:37 AM on December 1, 2006


My guess is that Google realized that there were plenty of other places doing the same thing for free and that they were never going to turn it into the cash cow they thought it would be.

I applaud them for killing it. And Yahoo gets the Bronx cheer for crowing so loudly about their Answers numbers (one media blog said they got four separate emails about the closure, talk about scratching for good news).
posted by fenriq at 8:37 AM on December 1, 2006


It's pretty obvious what the problem with Google Answers was from the start: it's human powered.

It doesn't scale. It takes lots of energy, time, and money to run it right (which we've learned from running ask mefi). Google isn't about running huge human endeavors, they're more about writing one line of python code and having it affect a billion users.

Google Answers is gone because Google isn't in the people business, they're in the computer programming business.
posted by mathowie at 10:00 AM on December 1, 2006 [1 favorite]


Well shit. I only just learned of Google Answers by reading this thread.
posted by EatTheWeek at 10:03 AM on December 1, 2006


Google Answers is gone because Google isn't in the people business...

*heh heh* I hope that doesn't imply Yahoo! is in the people business, because everything related too Yahoo! that they didn't buy has always been shite from what I can tell. At least since they stopped being a directory services back in the whenever it happened.
posted by smallerdemon at 10:13 AM on December 1, 2006


Why, pull up a milk crate, sonny, and we'll tell you the tales of the Stanford Closet, with detours provided by Gopher, Archie and Veronica. And a swift kick in the Kibos from B1FF.
posted by loquacious at 10:32 AM on December 1, 2006


Google Answers is gone because Google isn't in the people business, they're in the computer programming business.

Sad but true, and technology rolls ever onward. GA researchers didn't make much answering questions, but now they're not making anything at all.

.
posted by cenoxo at 10:59 AM on December 1, 2006


Google Answers is gone because Google isn't in the people business, they're in the computer programming business.

Yes! Much more likely than all the "don't bring money into the equation" type comments in the MetaTalk thread.
posted by Chuckles at 1:29 PM on December 1, 2006


That's what happen when you try too much thing in too short time
posted by zouhair at 3:05 PM on December 1, 2006


If you're wondering if there are any stupid people in the world, go to Yahoo Answers.
posted by neuron at 10:16 PM on December 1, 2006


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