One of the longest-running web Q&A platforms, Yahoo Answers, is now shutting down permanently. The service was active since 2005 and now the company will discontinue it on May 4 2021.
As per media reports, Yahoo, which is now part of Verizon Media Group, announced the change at the top of the Yahoo Answers homepage. The official message links to a separate FAQ page, which details the timeline of the shutdown. It says that starting from April 20 the platform will no longer accept new submissions.
According to a report, a note has been sent to the active Yahoo Answers members, which provides a little more detail about why Yahoo is shutting down the platform.
The note reads, “We launched Yahoo Answers sixteen years ago to help people around the world connect and share information. With you and millions of other users, we built the best place on the web to ask and answer questions on a variety of topics, creating a community of global knowledge sharing.”
It added, “While we could not have been prouder of what we accomplished together, we are reaching out today to let you know that we have decided to shut down Yahoo Answers on May 4, 2021.”
Users are also instructed to request their data until June 30, or it will be inaccessible after that. The report says that users will no longer be able to post any new questions or answers from April 20.
The company also said, if someone wants to download a copy of questions and answers posted by them, then they have to request it by signing into the Privacy Dashboard.
The company will delete all the data stored after June 30, 2021.