Daily Clerks

For once, even the almighty Google has to fail. It’s not often that we see offsprings of the company, particularly highly anticipated ones, just like Google Answers, die such a horrific death. The truth though is, that with Yahoo! Answers offering to pay people, and its existing current success, coupled with the fact that there are 101 other Web 2.0 start-ups out there, promising to do the same, there really was never any hope for Google Answers. Having been in development for over 4 years, Google has admitted that there is ‘no point’ in continuing development of the service.

Pete Cashmore has phrased the situation with Google and its random betas, more spray and pray. After all, Pete states that have been known for ‘throwing out hundreds of products and seeing what sticks’, a statement that sums up Google’s best and worst alphas in the wink of the eye. Some of the products, such as Picasa, have been real successes, but the news of Google Answers giving up the ghost, just proves that even the once invincible Google, is invincible no more. Even though question support has stopped, answering capabilities will remain till the end of the year. That said, with December only a few days around the corner, that doesn’t mean much any more.

Yahoo! Answers appears, at a glance, to be expanding phenomenally, with adverts popping up in my local newspaper on a daily basis. It just shows what careful attention to the little details Yahoo is showing by advertising in a paper so small, it gets very few hits. According to stats, Google Answers has been struggling for quite some time, slowly rotting away into the Internet back alleys. What makes the two so different? Yahoo was, and still has, strong community ties. It focuses on getting the people to answer, as opposed to Google, who hand picks experts in subjects to answer questions. Yahoo allows for social rating of answers, and the questions themselves, where Google limits the number of users and their ability to help out in the process.

My take on all of this? Well, to tell you the truth, it’s not a surprise. Google always struggles when it comes to community building. Despite this, it’s quite spectacular that they’ve survived as long as they have. Many leading internet marketers have stated that the only way forward is community! Could this be the end of the road for Google? After all, despite AdSense’s recent growth, many people are seeking out new, alternative ways to earn cash online using the same model, Pay Per Click. Just looking at the sheer number of competitors out there makes you wonder… Will Google make it through the next five years, still booming and unscathed? If not, who will be the next big one? Who knows, but at The Google Blog, they’re trying to make the most of things.

Google, google answers, web 2.0, yahoo, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Answers

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