Google Answers的死亡

GOOGLE中止了Google Answers，这个它已开发了四年的产品。
在Google Answers倒下的同时，Yahoo Answers却蒸蒸日上。个中原因，值得深思。
本文转自：
http://mashable.com/2006/11/29/google-answers-is-dead/

Google Answers Is Dead

November 29, 2006

Pete Cashmore

Google are known for throwing out hundreds of products and seeing what sticks (”spray and pray“) - now they’ve finally admitted that one of those products isn’t worth continuing. After 4 years of development, Google Answers is no longer accepting questions, and will stop accepting answers before the end of the year. Since it would be silly to remove all that great content, it looks as though the existing Q&As will remain on the site.

What’s interesting is that Google Answers is shutting down just as Yahoo Answers becomes a major force - according to Hitwise and rival stat firms, Yahoo’s product is growing rapidly, while Google Answers was in a slow decay. The difference is that Yahoo Answers is an open, social model where anyone can submit answers and have them rated. Google, meanwhile, focused on a select number of experts and charged for answers - a factor that probably limited their growth. In fact, Google is generally not very good at building communities - with the exception of Orkut (which became unintentionally popular in Brazil), they haven’t really grasped this space. And last week, Yahoo Answers was included on Answers.com, cementing the site as the leader in the Q&A space. Despite what some might think, Google doesn’t win every time.