Yahoo Answers shutting down

[darkoshi]

Yahoo Answers to shut down May 4, 2021

First Yahoo Groups, now Yahoo Answers. Sounds like it won't even be left available in read-only mode, as that's what it is saying it is set to now already.

Most of the time, the answers I found posted in Yahoo Answers weren't very good. But every once in a while I'd find something there which I didn't find anywhere else.
Oh, well.

.

Paper books whose content can't be searched by a simple typed query.
It occurred to me again recently how outdated that feels to me now.
Each book its own private trove of information, only accessible to those who make the effort required to explore it. Each person having to make their own map, their own index and bookmarks, of what is where inside the book, if they want to find the way back to a particular place in it.

Comments

[lhexan]

It occurred to me again recently how outdated that feels to me now.

It's not outdated, it's just outmoded. A textbook in any subject, even an old textbook, is superior to an online search, and if you make the effort to consult that textbook you learn to find pertinent information very quickly. A mentor of mine once said that the quality of a book is measured by the quality of its index, and a good index makes searching easy. Not as easy as Startpage, but still easy. I've got very good psychiatry and nutrition textbooks that I consult instead of the Internet, and at some point I plan to add some basic medical texts, like the PDR.

[marahmarie]

I never touch books anymore. I still like to read but same-same on thoughts on paper books. That's why I wanted to invent books that work like web pages years ago (and still want to invent that). I have a whole post on it....somewhere. I'd link but I keep forgetting to buy more time to get the search box back on my account, which is really the only thing I'm missing.