How Yahoo Answers Shaped the Way We Use the Internet
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This sense of community brought together by questions and comedy signifies the end of an era, according to Coster. Even though there are now sites like Quora and Reddit, these wouldn’t exist without Yahoo Answers. "Unlike Quora, you couldn’t find marketers [on Yahoo Answers] who would answer your question so they could squeeze in a link to a product or service," he said. "There wasn’t an omniscient, AI-powered algorithm that would sift through websites and serve you the most relevant ones (or the highest bidders, for that matter)."
How Yahoo Answers Shaped the Way We Use the Internet
The end of an era
By Allison Murray Allison Murray Tech News Reporter Southern Illinois University Allison reports on all things tech. She's a news junky that keeps her eye on the latest trends. Allison is a writer working out of Chicago, IL, with her only coworker: her cat Norbert. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on April 9, 2021 02:36PM EDT Fact checked by Rich Scherr Fact checked by Rich Scherr University of Maryland Baltimore County Rich Scherr is a seasoned technology and financial journalist who spent nearly two decades as the editor of Potomac and Bay Area Tech Wire. lifewire's fact checking process Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Social Media Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming GamingKey Takeaways
Yahoo Answers is shutting down after 15 years. In its heyday, Yahoo Answers helped connect strangers, provide answers to questions we all have, and gave us some laughs. At its worst, experts say it led to misinformation and bullying. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images After 15 years of providing the internet with endless humor and the answers to our burning questions, Yahoo Answers will shut down on May 4. Long before Reddit became the front page of the internet or Quora was the go-to answer forum, Yahoo Answers provided an entire generation with a sense of community through shared questions. Though the service experienced both good and bad times, experts say this truly marks the end of an internet era. "Yahoo Answers were a remnant of a time that is already well behind us; a time when search results weren’t Google search results by default when they were a lifelike mix of human knowledge, curiosity, and ignorance," wrote Mark Coster, owner and chief editor of STEM Toy Expert, to Lifewire in an email.The Good
At its core, Yahoo Answers helped people find solutions to their problems or questions, whether it was finding out how to work a lawnmower or more of the now-viral questions like "What happen when get pergenat?" or "How do you make a weeji board?" Alex Perkins, the co-founder of All the Stuff, described Yahoo Answers as "a sanctuary for the confused." There wasn’t an omniscient, AI-powered algorithm that would sift through websites and serve you the most relevant ones (or the highest bidders, for that matter). "It was a place where you could ask anything, even the weirdest of questions that people were probably too afraid to ask in real life," Perkins wrote to Lifewire in an email. "Way before there were Snapchat and TikTok, it was Yahoo Answers that provided us with this amazing window into the life of other people." Others say Yahoo Answers was one of the first, and possibly the last, positive community spaces of the internet before social media turned online communities into trolling, misinformation, and comparing yourself to others. "The original intention and creation of [Yahoo Answers], well could be described as base-good," wrote Erin Staples, a community builder for Journ Beauty. "We came together to reach out, help one another out, regardless of where one may be in life. The intention and purpose of this little online forum was to help one another out.” And, of course, the site proved to be comedy gold when you open up the ability to ask any question you want to the internet.This sense of community brought together by questions and comedy signifies the end of an era, according to Coster. Even though there are now sites like Quora and Reddit, these wouldn’t exist without Yahoo Answers. "Unlike Quora, you couldn’t find marketers [on Yahoo Answers] who would answer your question so they could squeeze in a link to a product or service," he said. "There wasn’t an omniscient, AI-powered algorithm that would sift through websites and serve you the most relevant ones (or the highest bidders, for that matter)."