Yahoo answers is fun why did Google kill theirs?

Answer 1

My guess is that they've decided to focus on different things.

You can actually see what's going on in how the companies pitch themselves. Yahoo calls themselves an "internet destination" (see link for "Who is Yahoo?" below) while Google says their mission is about organizing information.

Yahoo seems more intent on being a "hangout" on the internet, and so they provide content like news and music and communities to interact with like Yahoo Answers to keep you hanging around. You can see that in their homepage: they've got a little bit of everything there, and something for everyone.

Google is more focused on information. You go to Google to search, but if you go past to look at all the other services they provide, it's like a suite of programs: spreadsheets, maps, Gmail, Google Earth, Picasa. Even for those things with a community focus, like 'blogger.com', Google tends to focus more on the software and platform than working to create a community or destination.

Of course there are overlaps: both do search marketing, and both are competing in a number of areas. However, it's clear that to some degree each has found something that they do particularly well and decided to focus their company on that.

There are any number of reasons why Google decided to kill their answers community. It's entirely possible Google decided to give the answers thing a try and didn't find it rewarding enough for them to pursue, or they simply decided to cede the ground to Yahoo and focus on other areas.

Answer 2

Theirs was lousy and they knew it.

Answer 3

it probably wasnt as fun and interesting as this site