Google is shutting down Google Answers, a service that lets users pose questions to a panel of researchers and pay for useful answers.
The service, about four years old, failed to gain much traction with users, especially when compared with a rival service offered by Yahoo, which is free.
Google Answers never generated much traffic or revenue for Google, said Danny Sullivan, editor of the online publication Search Engine Watch.
"Yahoo has an answers product that works," he said. Because Google Answers required users to pay, he said, it "could not have been that product." Sullivan noted that unlike Yahoo, Google had not promoted its service very much.
