Washington, April 6: It’s time to bid adieu to one of the internet’s favourite dinosaurs! Yahoo Answers, a digital platform where users posted public questions on different topics, is shutting down forever. As per The Verge, Yahoo Answers, which is one of the longest-running web Q&A platforms, is shutting down on May 4.
In addition to the news regarding the shut down, users will no longer be able to post questions or answers on the site beginning April 20. The website will only be available in read-only mode from April 20. After May 4, Yahoo Answers will completely cease to exist, redirecting users who try to access it to the main Yahoo page. Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Google Pay Down; Android Users Complain on Twitter, Reddit & DownDetector.
Yahoo, which is now part of Verizon Media Group following the company’s sale to the telecom for nearly USD 5 billion in 2017, announced the change at the top of the Yahoo Answers homepage. The message links to an FAQ, which details the timeline of the shutdown. Starting April 20, the platform will no longer accept new submissions, the FAQ explained.
Users will also have until June 30 to request their data or it’ll be inaccessible after that. That includes “all user-generated content including your Questions list, Questions, Answers list, Answers, and any images,” Yahoo said, but “you won’t be able to download other users’ content, questions, or answers.”
A note sent to active Yahoo Answers members provides a little more detail as to why Yahoo is shutting down the platform, including that “it has become less popular over the years” and that the company “decided to shift our resources away” from the product to “focus on products that better serve our members.”
Yahoo Answers first launched in June 2005. The site was a source of funny memes due to the poorly-worded questions and even worse answers. However, today, the front page of the website is filled with conspiracy-fueled questions about George Floyd’s death, Joe Biden’s presidency, and the Holocaust.
Yahoo Answers and Yahoo, in general, were quite popular in the early days of the internet. However, Google and its products like Search and Gmail changed how people used the internet. Still, the concept of platforms for public Q&As has not faded. Platforms including Reddit and Quora are still serving a similar purpose and enjoy a large user base.
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