Yahoo Answers, the eleventh most popular website on the internet as of writing according to Alexa, is poised to shut down on May 4, 15 years since it launched, later becoming the world’s leading question-and-answer platform.
From May 4, answers.yahoo.com will redirect to the Yahoo homepage. Users have until April 20 to post new questions on the site or answer those of others. After May 4, all content will disappear from the website, though users have an option to download their own Questions list, Questions, Answers list, Answers, and any images, until June 30. They won’t be able to download those of other users.
Yahoo Answers’ ubiquitous presence in search results on every topic gives the site unparalleled reach: Competitor Quora was ranked the world’s 374th most popular website in terms of global engagement, according to Alexa, while the same ranking site placed Yahoo! Answers at the number 11 position.
According to the Verge, citing a reply from Yahoo Answers members, the platform was killed as it was losing popularity over the years and the company wanted to shift resources to focus on products that “better serve our members”.
"We launched Yahoo Answers sixteen years ago to help people around the world connect and share information. With you and millions of other users, we built the best place on the web to ask and answer questions on a variety of topics, creating a community of global knowledge sharing,” the Yahoo Answers team said in a post.
“While we could not have been prouder of what we accomplished together, we are reaching out today to let you know that we have decided to shut down Yahoo Answers on May 4th, 2021. While Yahoo Answers war once a key part of Yahoo’s products and services, it has become less popular over the years as the needs of our members have changed. To that end, we have decided to shift our resources away from Yahoo Answers to focus on products that better serve our members and deliver on Yahoo’s promise of providing premium trusted content.”
In the post announcing the end of Yahoo Answers, the company listened and answered a question in an FAQ question on “Where should I go when I have questions in the future?”. In response to which the company wrote, “Visit Yahoo Search for answers and information from the web. For specific info and resources around the Coronavirus pandemic, please visit our Yahoo COVID page.”
One of the top posts on Yahoo! Answers following the announcement was titled “Who do you blame for yahoo answers getting shutdown?”.
All of Yahoo's internet business was acquired in 2016 by Verizon Communications.
