Shutting Down Google Answers

Remember when the pay for answers Google Answers service launched how some in the information business thought it could spell the end of reference librarians? Today, Google announced that they are stopping accepting questions and will eventually close down any more answers by the end of 2006. Google will keep the database, which is a good thing since there are some very useful answers within it. But it is ironic to see the demise of this fee-based service, which seemed to make the answers something less than minimum wage and cost the questioners a relatively minor fee. At the same time, Yahoo!'s newer, free answers service has been booming. While the answers are typically much shorter and less well researched, the Yahoo! service seems to have struck a chord with Internet users. After less than a year, Yahoo! reports that their service is available in 18 countries and 8 languages and that Yahoo! Answers has 60 million unique users worldwide with 160 million answers. Just within the US and English-speaking countries, they have 14.4 million unique users and 60 million answers.