Google Answers never really took off like its rival answer sites, but I have to confess I have a soft spot in my heart for the service. I used to get a kick out of a friend of mine who would haggle with desperate college students over how much they’d have to pay him to do their computer science homework - all in flagrant violation of the site’s terms of service, of course.

And so today it was sad to see that Google Answers is shutting down.

Sergey Brin told us as early as last year that Answers wasn’t working, and it’s not hard to see why. Answers was an early foray into ’social search’, in which users could post questions to be answered by Google-designated ‘answerers’ for a pre-arranged fee. If that sounds difficult to scale, that’s because it is. According to Google, Answers only managed to attract around 800 dedicated ‘answerers’ over the four years the site was running. That’s not enough to create a moneyspinner - not by a long shot.

With Sergey stalking the landscape pledging to streamline Google’s product development under the mantra "features, not products," Answers is unlikely to be the last lacklustre Google project to go. So what’s next on the chopping block? Read our list of likely candidates and offer your own suggestions after the jump.

With Answers shutting down, it raises the question: What’s next? Here is our short list of Google projects that could make good candidates for the chopping block. Anyone else have a candidate?

1. Google Video  - Sorry, guys, but we just don’t buy the idea that you’re going to continue to pump money into Google Video now that you’ve snapped up YouTube. If we had to bet on one project to be next to go on the block, this would be the one.

2. Google Checkout - So far, Google’s PayPal-killer is off to a sputtering start. There is huge potential in the transaction processing business and the possible synergies with advertisers are compelling. But does Google really want to be in financial services? We’re not the only ones asking questions. It would pay to think twice about this one.

3. Orkut - Pesaroso, amigos, but Orkut isn’t working out. Google’s entry into the social networking scene doesn’t even figure among the big players. Though it remains popular in Brazil, technical glitches, fake profiles and other problems are quickly pushing Orkut into Friendster territory.

November 29th, 2006 in Internet | Permalink