Yahoo Answers is shutting down on 4 May 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now 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.

? asked in Computers & InternetInternetGoogle · 4 weeks ago

WHy is yahoo shutting this down is it because they didnt by google and facebook, or when they didnt sell to microsoft and is now poor?

13 Answers

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  • 3 weeks ago

    Here it goes:

    6:56 PM 4/14/2021

    I don't trust the system to download the whole package like it says it will so I'm downloading individual pages now, one at a time. 

      Mainly, I think that it was a kind of a hard system to monetize.

    It's hard to sell stuff to people who buck any advertising they see or hear.  Take punk rock for example; Now that I've actually listened to the lyrics of not a huge amount, but a chunk of punk, I see that there are recurring themes of: F*** the oil companies, throw out your T.V., Don't buy processed food, get rid of your car, radio playlist are really just commercials, don't buy music from the record companies etc. etc. and so, the radio station sponsors all balk and say, "Fine, no airtime for you." and that's why you don't hear punk rock on commercial stations, not because it isn't listenable, because it can't generate any revenue; if you hear it at all it will be a college station or maybe even a pirate radio station.

      One of the big problems facing Yahoo Answers is that it is still locked in a typing into a keyboard format that resembled BBS systems.  It's very Gen-Xish, even Boomerish.  Hunching over a keyboard is not where it's at anymore.  Everything now seems to be geared towards video, live chat, and instantaneous post.  Snapchat and tiktok dominate.  Even the new little kindle fire tablet has as its default option "Camera" for its image posting ability.  Point and shoot.  You have to back up and chose "Files" to post an image that you took earlier with the camera.  It really is set up for the kind of post where you hit "video", point the camera at yourself and your friends and say, "We're all going to get margaritas!"

      I have been reviewing the past seven years of my own questions and starting about five years ago I started asking questions along this format:

      On yahoo Answers I used to be able to ___ (*thus-and-such), but now I can't do that anymore.  What happened?

    *pictures, videos, comments, answer old ?'s, and many more...

      About a third of the respondents said something like,"Oh, that's a glitch; you need to do so-and-so.  It usually wasn't a glitch.

     Now its 4-14-2021 and I can see that the handwriting was on the wall.  Y!A is like a sad ghost mall first they made the parking more difficult, then they shut down the theater, and the arcade, the fountain, most of the shops, all but one outlet in the food court then that one.  They let all the potted plants die.  Now all that's left is half a skeleton of a Sears, a key cutter, and an eyeglass place that is only open on Tuesdays.

  • 3 weeks ago

    They've made too many stupid decisions over the years that decreased the site's popularity until it was no longer worth the cost of maintaining. They removed the ability to vote for best answer, so there was less incentive to write decent answers. They removed the point cost to ask questions, so there was no incentive to ask good questions or pick best answers for your questions. They added the ability to anonymize yourself and your questions / answers, which removes any need to be cordial or polite. They added an oft-abused reporting system which seldom worked correctly, then removed the ability to appeal. They broke indexing the site by search engines, so it's harder to find existing questions and answers or attract new users.

    60

  • Anonymous
    3 weeks ago

    They are not shutting down.  They will become READ ONLY.   I guess they have enough answers.  They were never meant to be a chat site. A READ ONLY  site is cheaper.   It is a guess.  I notice there is no advertising, yahoo is not big enough to buy google or FB & Microsoft does not want the site.  M$ does not chat.

  • ron h
    Lv 7
    3 weeks ago

    Too many lying trumpsters. 

  • 3 weeks ago

    well maybe that why, or they didnt agree with facebook and google answers whatever they asked them doing. but they are not selling the microsoft  yet. they only making some changes  and whatever they are planning to do next i hopefully will be good and different. i remember that they had chat rooms and games where you can join and play online games but they tooked those out some reasons .they never told the users that reasons they did that. anyways facebook, myspace, twitters and hot mail doesnt have no trouble only thing they always watching everyone that has those internets access. but i known that Aol is gone . not sure where they are at now but maybe they just retired or went bankupty stuffered loosing money. I hope fully Yahoo can stand up still doesnt go anywhere  else and loose money or become poor. 

  • Anonymous
    3 weeks ago

    too many bad people spewing hatred.

  • Anonymous
    4 weeks ago

    My guess is that they are going bust, something has to give and it's US, the faithful users who are now missing out on something, which I believe was good.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    4 weeks ago

    Because it has become a wasteland..........

  • 4 weeks ago

    Because Verizon, who now own Yahoo! haven't got a clue what they're doing.

  • Anonymous
    4 weeks ago

    They've made too many stupid decisions over the years that decreased the site's popularity until it was no longer worth the cost of maintaining. They removed the ability to vote for best answer, so there was less incentive to write decent answers. They removed the point cost to ask questions, so there was no incentive to ask good questions or pick best answers for your questions. They added the ability to anonymize yourself and your questions / answers, which removes any need to be cordial or polite. They added an oft-abused reporting system which seldom worked correctly, then removed the ability to appeal. They broke indexing the site by search engines, so it's harder to find existing questions and answers or attract new users.

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