While Yahoo! invests more and more in its personal answer project, even inlcuding answers in regular search results, Google is giving up.

Google Answers, which allows users to send questions to volunteers for an anwers, will be put to sleep. The existing database of questions and answers will remain, though.

The project started with a rough idea from Larry Page, and a small 4-person team turned it into reality in less than 4 months, Andrew Fikes and Lexi Baugher report at the Google blog. At the end more than 500 researchers were ready to answer question for US$2.50 or more — usually within 24 hours.

The Google bloggers do not say why the project is closed down, though. A lack of visitors may be one reason.

See also: Goodbye Google Answers (Search Engine Watch)
Yahoo! launches answer service (Pandia)