Google Answer gets shut down !!!

Slashdot It! Google has shut down Google Answers, its first project beyond Web search. The company didn't provide a direct reason for shuttering the service, although the engineers who wrote the blog post implied Google was reconsidering its goals for the project. Google Answers allowed anyone to ask a question but only allowed a limited number of "research experts" to answer a question. Thus Google Answers could never compete with the greater growth curve of social apps like Yahoo Answers, which welcomes all comers to participate in both ends of question-and-answer didactics. While some may see the end of Google Answers as a sign of defeat versus Yahoo Answers but one of the original goals for Google was to discover what users wanted to learn about, but Google no longer needs Google Answers to figure that out. More recent projects like Google Custom Search Engine and apps like Google Docs and Google Desktop Search offer much better measurements of intention and attention. Yahoo asks Google answers users to switch Following Google's shuttering of Google Answers, Yahoo has invited the researchers that made that service possible to join Yahoo Answers. "This is an open invitation for those researchers to join us. Please consider sharing your knowledge with millions of people on Yahoo! Answers; connect with users with shared interests; get answers to all your questions; and help build the world's most vibrant and trusted community." Yahoo Answers has grown rapidly since its launch last November, while Google Answers has stagnated. Yahoo Answers is better positioned for growth, since it allows users to ask and answer questions. Google Answers only allowed users to ask questions, and those users had to pay a fee to get an answer from a research expert. Yahoo set up a Yahoo group for former Google Answers researchers. So far there are 28 members and 2 posts. Other projects discarded by Google Google answers : Answers questions such as "What is the meaning of life?", "Why is there war, hunger, pain, and suffering in the world?", and "How is Paris Hilton famous?" Gmail 2.0 : Calls you at home, in the middle of the night, to tell you all the fascinating things it's been reading in your email. Koogle:A line of Jewish food so straightforward and easy to make that it will replace Mexican and Italian as America's favorite ethnic food. DoesThisMakeMeLookFatoogle: Scan a photo of yourself in those jeans/dress/former frat logo-wear and get an honest "yes" or "no" answer from the Google algorithm. Google SatelliteNet: This sophisticated worldwide network of artificial intelligence is 100% guaranteed not to go crazy and decide to annihilate humanity -- or your money back.

Googster: Google's free (ad-supported, natch) music service, containing 900 billion songs. And that's just the country section.

Beer Googles: An interactive database about beer and the effects on your body (calculates image distortion based on user input).

Google PAPS: Detailed medical information for everyone in your neighborhood.

New toolbar application that weighs the price of an ounce of gold relative to a single share of Google.

Google Windows Vista: Due to antitrust concerns, it was too soon to totally wipe Microsoft off the face of the planet.