Google Answers was a great experiment which provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users. We’ll continue to look for new ways to improve the search experience and to connect people to the information they want.
Official Google Blog: Adieu to Google Answers
Greg Linden had this to add:
Another interesting comparison is with the fledgling Askville and NowNow question answering services from Amazon. Those services appear to be trying to blend Google Answers (tens of dollars for answers from experts) with Yahoo Answers (free for answers from idiots); Askville and NowNow use Mechanical Turk and will charge under a dollar for answers. I am curious to see if these Amazon Q&A services succeed, or if the lesson from Google Answers is that people are not willing to pay for answers regardless of quality.
In response to Google’s announcement that they are shutting down the Google Answers service, researchers have banded together to petition Google to keep GA alive. Please sign.
http://www.petitiononline.com/ganswers/
Keep Google Answers Alive
To: Google
The Google Answers service has helped many people during its four and a half years of existence, and it continues to do so. Researchers and unpaid commenters formed a community which should not be discarded lightly. Many repeat users were able to easily find answers to difficult questions thanks to the service. Furthermore, Google Answers proved that a living could be made working on the Internet alone, as many researchers worked on the site as their sole source of income.
We, the undersigned, believe that Google should continue to provide this valuable community service to the Internet.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
sorry to hear google answers closing down. I personally liked it very much. enough for the bad news. now the good news:
http://www.wuyaSea.com welcomes all google answer refugees.
WuyaSea.com allow you to ask question for free or for a fee (minimum $2). any category, any topic.
WuyaSea.com also allow you to answer any questions, our commission now is 20% + $0.20.
http://www.wuyaSea.com
wuyaSea Operator