RIP Google Answers, 2002-2006

Google has unexpectedly terminated Google Answers, its question-and-answer site that allowed expert searchers to get paid for answering questions. The service will stop accepting new questions in the coming days, and will stop accepting new answers by the end of the year. In their post to the Official Google Blog, Andrew Fikes and Lexi Baugher, whose very very first project at Goolge was Answers, don't really give an answer for the service's closing, but say that "Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time -- and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product."

Though the pay structure meant that Google Answers' answers were generally very thorough and accurate, it would seem that Yahoo! has found more success with its recently-expanded Yahoo! Answers. If you want to see some of the best answers (and questions) Google Answers produced, I recommend checking out Best of Google Answers.

Tags: andrew fikes, AndrewFikes, answers, google, google answers, GoogleAnswers, lexi baugher, LexiBaugher