Today on the official Google Blog, it was announced that Google Answers would no longer be accepting new questions. Around for about 4 years, the product was the brainchild of Larry Page, which quickly grew from a four person operation into an 800+ member team of contributors.
The idea behind Google Answers is that people would ask a question, and be willing to pay a certain amount of money to get a professional answer. The researchers would receive 3/4 of the profit, while the remaining 1/4 went to Google. Answers would cost a minimum of $2.50, with the cost increasing with the level of difficulty.
Answers was sort of the odd man out from the beginning, mainly because it was a pay service. Most everything else Google offers up is completely free. The cost of the service also may have ultimately been what deterred people from using the service. It was also never an integral part of Google Search, and was more of a side item than anything.
The old questions and answers will remain for an undisclosed amount of time, but Google will cease to accept new questions by the end of the week.