from the You've-got-questions?-We've-got-answers...-But-now-they're-hidden! dept.
According to a headline on the answers.yahoo.com web page, Yahoo Answers is shutting down .
Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Yahoo provided additional details at https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN35642.html including:
What's the timeline for this process?
- April 20th - You won't be able to post new Yahoo Answers questions or answer other users' questions.
- May 4th - The website won't be accessible. If you try to access Yahoo Answers on May 4th you'll be redirected to the Yahoo homepage.
[Ed Note - Have any of my fellow soylentils used Yahoo Answers, and if so was it helpful?]
Additional Coverage:
- https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/5/22368488/yahoo-answers-shutdown-may-4-internet-era-over-rip
- https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/yahoo-answers-will-be-shut-down-forever-on-may-4th/ar-BB1fkigF
- https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/yahoo-answers-shut-down-date-1151453/
- https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-answers-is-finally-being-shut-down/
- https://www.ign.com/articles/yahoo-answers-is-shutting-down-permanently-on-may-4th
- https://mashable.com/article/yahoo-answers-shutting-down/
- https://www.pcmag.com/news/yahoo-answers-to-shut-down-on-may-4th
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @03:57PM (6 children)
I've never seen anyone recommend Yahoo Answers as either a place to find information nor as a place to ask a question. The only time it gets a mention is when a question or answer is so hilariously bad that people screenshot it to put on other sites.
For example, this canine reproduction education question. [twimg.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @04:11PM (3 children)
Quora, Stack Overflow, and Reddit fill any role Yahoo! Answers once had.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by stretch611 on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:37PM (2 children)
Of those, I find Stack Overflow quite helpful.
Quora seems only to exist in order to pad out google search results. iirc, everytime I went to the quora page it required me to log in to see any answer. I found out that I liked things much better when I just filtered out quora's results by personalizing my search results to ignore the site.
And it seems on reddit, you are just as likely to get some moron calling you an idiot for even asking then you are to get a real answer. (and browsing reddit is much better with a javascript blocker... but that now requires you to replace all urls with old.reddit.com instead of www.reddit.com )
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:44PM (1 child)
Quora fills the role of taking on the very dumb questions that Yahoo! Answers was famous for.
The Reddit experience varies. But on all of these sites, usually someone already asked the question you want answered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @07:21PM
Reddit is policed by blue-haired Ham-planets. So if your answer makes their crust-infested holes itch, it will disappear into the void, much like any diet advice you might give them.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:18PM (1 child)
I used it a lot in the Junior College days. Between that and Quora, I was literally able to bullshit my way through entire classes, in one instance earning an A. Of course the free versions are only suited to easy undergrad classes, but that works out great when you have to take a bunch of bullshit using well-known e-textbooks from which the quizzes and exams were already leaked. I never needed "help" for classes that had anything to do with my major, as I actually wanted to learn from those.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 06 2021, @06:05PM
Some people go to college with a thirst for knowledge.
Others with a thirst for alkey
haulhall.The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Tuesday April 06 2021, @04:17PM (6 children)
I have to admit that I'm constantly surprised, I know I shouldn't be by now, that Yahoo is even still around. It's like one of the celebs you just know is dead but then turns out that they are still alive.
Can't say I used Yahoo-answer. That said I'm sure it has shown up in a search sometime and I used it without sort of knowing or thinking about it.
So what is still around of the Yahoo-empire? The search has got to be dead right? Who in their right mind would use that anymore. The start page as some sort of news and clickbait aggregator? I guess the mail is still around? Even tho I think I see less and less of them as public addresses when you see lists of them. What else is there? Or is Yahoo now more or less just a brand name that owns a lot of copyrighted things?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @04:22PM (1 child)
This. Especially in Japan.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @11:56PM
Yes, "Yahoo! Japan" is a separate company from the US Yahoo, and they're still doing well. Similar to how Tower Records is still going in Japan, since they split off from the US Tower Records completely, well before the US Tower Records went bankrupt.
Which just goes to show, that if your Japanese branch or joint-company goes solo from your main company, sell your main company while it's still worth something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @04:45PM
>> So what is still around of the Yahoo-empire?
Marissa Mayer's pension.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DBCubix on Tuesday April 06 2021, @08:28PM (1 child)
1998 Yahoo had the opportunity but refused to buy Google for $1M
2006 Yahoo had the opportunity but refused to buy Facebook for $1B
2007 Yahoo Auctions got shutdown after selling Nazi Memorabilia in France
2008 Yahoo refused to sell to Microsoft for $44B
2009 Yahoo replaced its search engine with Microsoft Bing
Then there was Marissa Mayer...
They make bad decisions. Not sure what else there is?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 07 2021, @07:57PM
I get your point, but if Yahoo had bought Google or Facebook, would they have been as successful as they proved to be? I could imagine yes, or I could imagine that Yahoo's management completely botches things. It's easy to imagine Yahoo search meddling with Google and not giving it the space it needed to thrive, and the Facebook/Myspace fight was so strong that anything could have tipped the balance the other way.
As for not selling to Microsoft... well, harder to judge that one. Still, if Microsoft had managed to turn it around, people could laugh at them for showing bad judgement for selling for such a low price.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TheRaven on Wednesday April 07 2021, @10:40AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @04:56PM (5 children)
How girl get pragnent?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:15PM
Google (or Alexa) are more gooder:
Mom: son, What language do they speak in the UK?
Son: hey, mom, I'm at work right now. Just google it.
Mom: I'll just wait 'till you get home. I don't want to bother the Google people with that. I'm sure they have more important questions to answer.
(how does that compare to Yahoo answers?)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:30PM
Your questions remind me of a former vice presidential running mate who was also the governor of Alaska.
Daughter: Mom! I'm pregnant again! Why does this keep happening to me?
Mom: It's okay dear. Your father and I will explain it to you when we think you're old enough to know.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday April 06 2021, @06:43PM (2 children)
If you have 5 minutes to spare for a chuckle, this is a rabbit hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EShUeudtaFg [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Tuesday April 06 2021, @08:40PM (1 child)
Was going to moderate your post, but there's no option for "Completely Flabbergasted."
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Arik on Tuesday April 06 2021, @10:59PM
Or possibly 'interesting.'
But it's already +5 and you can't get more pregnant so just relax.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:07PM (1 child)
COVID-19 is a Universal Disease. A one-size fits all. It can cause anything and everything, and perhaps nothing whatsoever, and whatnot. It can be prevented and cured by almost everything, and perhaps maybe anything, and maybe even something else, or nothing whatsoever.
(Score: 1, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:35PM
(1950s style educational film music playing in background)
COVID-19 is indeed the biggest danger the human race has ever faced.
It is incorrect that it can be prevented and cured by almost everything. The only known means of prevention are:
* vaccinations
* wearing masks
* obeying government health officials
* and complying with any other government requirements which may become necessary in the future
We must all do our part to prevent the spread of this terrible scourge upon white mankind.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by richtopia on Tuesday April 06 2021, @05:20PM
My friends would drunkenly answer questions on Yahoo Answers in college. Whenever they hit a relationship question they assumed the person asking is a tweenager, and suggested roller skating as the next course of action.
Admittedly, not terrible advice. Even if you are an adult, how bad could roller skating be on a relationship? If roller skating prompts a divorce, then I think that answer is doing you a favour.
(Score: 0) by mydn on Tuesday April 06 2021, @06:35PM (2 children)
What was the question?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 06 2021, @08:21PM
Q. What will be lost by the loss of
losingloosing Yahoo answers?A. The loss to humanity will be incalculable. But advertisers won't even notice.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Tuesday April 06 2021, @09:26PM
This isn't Jeopardy, you know!
(Score: 3, Funny) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday April 06 2021, @06:40PM (3 children)
Quora is, for all its faults, exponentially better than Yahoo Answers ever was. It's inexplicable how two sites with identical core concepts could turn out so differently.
(Score: 3, Informative) by kazzie on Tuesday April 06 2021, @09:21PM (2 children)
Yeah, but Quora demands you log in to see answers once you look at any second question (unless you're cookie-dumping). Yahoo didn't behave quite so militantly, or at least it didn't when I last wandered over there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 07 2021, @03:01PM (1 child)
That's why that post got the funny mod. Also, whatever happened to sites getting deranked for not having the information you were searching for on the page with no log in needed? I'll never log into quora because they hide the information on that page.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday April 08 2021, @05:13AM
The answer is visible.. if you don't have a cookie indicating you've visited before. That's when they throw up the sign-up wall.
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Tuesday April 06 2021, @07:45PM
Yahoo Answers is an excellent example of the clueless leading the gullible within a reverberatory echo chamber.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06 2021, @11:26PM (4 children)
I still miss Geocities.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday April 07 2021, @06:17AM (3 children)
You can be helped- [wonder-tonic.com]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 07 2021, @10:44AM (2 children)
Not the look, the content. The net was new, people were enthusiastically putting information online. You could find a page on how to do any obscure damn thing at all. I found a page that detailed exactly how to remove the apparently unremovable inside panels on my (at the time) 25 year old car, without breaking the single-use clips.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday April 07 2021, @03:21PM (1 child)
Now, people use YouTube for that kind of thing.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 07 2021, @09:05PM
It's not the same. The enthusiasm is gone. It was the same spirit that early Wikipedia inspired. "Let's put ALL human knowledge into the system. It will be wonderful!!".
Now Youtube is about views, Wikipedia is about turf wars and editor egos. They lost any chance of any support at all from me the first time they deleted an article for being non-notable. For fucks sake, it's a database. Space is so cheap it is irrelevant, and yet some pissant little shit deletes someone else's work not for being wrong, but for being obscure. Looking up obscure shit is the entire point of a fucking encyclopedia.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday April 07 2021, @04:31AM
Asking for a friend.