Yahoo Answers to shut down on May 4

Yahoo has officially announced its decision to shut down its social Q&A platform, Yahoo Answers, on May 4, 2021.

On April 20, users won’t be able to post new Yahoo Answers questions or answer other users’ questions. However, on May 4, Yahoo Answers will no longer be accessible, and those who will try to access the website will be redirected to the main Yahoo page.

Yahoo Answers has been operating since 2005. Despite Yahoo Answers’ shutdown, Yahoo mentioned that there would be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services.

“To that end, we have decided to shift our resources away from Yahoo Answers to focus on products that better serve our members and deliver on Yahoo’s promise of providing premium trusted content,” Yahoo mentioned in an email sent to active Yahoo Answers members, The Verge reported.

Meanwhile, Yahoo Answers users have the option to download their content. They must request to download their data before June 30, 2021. As per Yahoo’s FAQ page, it could take up to 30 days for the request to finish processing and the download to become available. Users will be notified through email when the download is ready. Do note that once a download is requested for Yahoo Answers, another download request cannot be made for Yahoo Answers until the original request is made or canceled. Head over to this link to download Yahoo Answers data.

Yahoo Answers data download will return all user-generated content, including Questions list, Questions, Answers list, Answers, and any images. However, users won’t be able to download other users’ content, questions, or answers.

Sources: Yahoo, The Verge