Google yields to Yahoo on query service - The Boston Globe

 Back to the drawing board?

Google Inc. doesn't have all the answers -- a fact underscored by the Internet search leader's decision to abandon a four-year-old service that hired researchers to field questions on everything from school homework to sports trivia.

The retreat, disclosed in a notice posted on Google's website late Tuesday, represents a rare victory for rival Yahoo Inc.

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"Google Answers was a great experiment which provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users," software engineers Andrew Fikes and Lexi Baugher wrote in the closure notice. "We'll continue to look for new ways to improve the search experience and to connect people to the information they want."

Source: Google yields to Yahoo on query service - The Boston Globe