I’m shameless. I need attention, so I, um, accidentally wrote Google, when what’s being discontinued is Google Answers.

But now that I’ve got your fleeting attention, let me explain. Google Answers lets you post a question that you want answered by any one of Google’s 500 screened researchers. You specify a price that you are willing to pay for the information, starting at $2.50. Once your question is answered it is added to the database so that others can browse or search it for free. You can also rate the response.

The service never took off. People just don’t want to pay for information. (Which is why membership libraries such as Jenkins have to beg for members.)

There are a few other similar services left: Yahoo Answers (which is actually pretty popular, but is not much more than a place to hangout and type mindless drivel), Windows Live QnA Beta, and Wondir.

I’m hoping that Google Answers is just a start. Since Google gets something like 95% of their traffic from their top 3 services, perhaps they will prune other non-performers. Then maybe they can get back to concentrating on search.

A guy can dream, can’t he?

Submitted by: Dan Giancaterino, Internet Librarian
on November 29, 2006 - 11:05 am

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