Question: Google's press releases

Thu 2 Sep 2010 - 5:23 pm UTC

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ANSWERED on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 2:16 am UTC by davidsarokin

Question: Google's press releases

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Asked by j_philipp on Sat 23 Jun 2007 - 8:47 pm UTC:

Is it true that Google removed press releases from their press release
archive relating to now canceled products, like Google Answers?
For reference: http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/99837.html#id99866 , a
thread in which you can also find a ZIP download of all the press releases
my scraper found.

Uclue Researcher Answer by Researcher davidsarokin on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 2:16 am UTC:

Phillip,

To the best of my knowledge, Google never issued a single press release
that mentioned Google Answers.  If that's the case, then there's obviously
nothing to remove from the PR archives.  

I'm basing this assertion on several things:

1.  I've tracked GA news for many years, and don't recall ever seeing press
from the Googleplex on GA itself

2.  I've canvassed my fellow ex-GARs, and none of them have turned up any
press releases.

3.  And I also searched a number of newsy databases -- Google News, Nexis,
Factiva and the like -- and nothing shows up by way of an actual Google
release.  

Since you are one of the web's eminent Google observers, perhaps a search
of your own memory (both biological and computational) will help to confirm
my belief that no such press items were ever released.

Of course, if anyone out there reading this post has information to the
contrary, please post a comment, and I'll do my best to follow up on it.

Let me know if there's anything more I can do for you on this.  


David

Uclue Researcher Comment by Researcher Hailstorm (hailstorm) on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 2:54 am UTC:

The Wayback machine has archives of the Press Release site of Google since
December 2000, which you can reference if you wish to investigate further:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html

Uclue Researcher Comment by Researcher John (sublime1) on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 3:06 am UTC:

This looks to be about the only extant (and now outdated) citation for
Google Answers on Google's press pages:
http://www.google.com/press/descriptions.html#answers

Comment by User probo on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 5:56 am UTC:

Come to think of it, Froogle has not been prominent of late.

It's even slipped off Google's Main Menu, 

A similar fate blighted GA shortly before the axe fell.

Do you think?

Comment by j_philipp on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 11:01 am UTC:

Probo, Google renamed Froogle to "Google Product Search" a while ago.
(Which doesn't mean it *won't* be replaced by Google Base one of these
days!)

Accepted and rated by j_philipp on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 11:02 am UTC:

Thanks, that answers it! (I know it's hard to answer questions in regards
to "does something NOT exist" because not finding something isn't proof for
that...)

Comment by User probo on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 12:45 pm UTC:

Many thanks, JP!

Bryan

Comment by User kemlo on Sun 24 Jun 2007 - 10:24 pm UTC:

There was this in the google friends newsletter for June 2005
Google Q&A
In a world of complex situations and conditions, isn't it a relief to get a
factual answer now and then? Google Q&A sheds light on facts: the
[population of Portugal] or [who is Jane Fonda] or perhaps [how many moons
does Jupiter have]. We're constantly adding more information that's well
suited to a question/answer format. And you can use Google SMS to get the
answers you need on your mobile device, too.
Google Q&A: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#qna
Google SMS for Google Q&A:

And then there was this from May 2002

Google Answers: Tough Questions Answered at a Low, Low Price
Everybody has questions. In most cases, Google search is an incredibly fast
way to answer them. But some ("Should I buy or lease my next car?" "Why is
there air?") are trickier or more time-consuming than others.

To help Google users over those hurdles, we launched Google Answers, a
service powered by human researchers with search expertise. When you post a
question, you say what you're willing to pay (between $5 and $50) and how
quickly you need a reply. If the answer you get back satisfies, you pony up
what you promised. To spread the benefit around, your answer is posted to
the Google Answers site so registered users can add their two cents or
profit from yours.

While queries like "Where did I put my keys?" and "Why did I marry this
guy?" are problematic, plenty of topics remain fair game. For instance:

How can I keep ice dams from damaging my cathedral ceiling?
How can I find teacher's salary scales for the Cincinnati area?
Describe the manufacturing process for commercial soya sauce.
Google Answers boasts a stunning research team with expertise in areas from
biochemical engineering to public policy. Feel like joining this
illustrious crew? Sign up to become one of Google's paid researchers:

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=apply

To try out Google Answers:

https://answers.google.com/answers/main

Google

Uclue Researcher Comment by Researcher Roger Browne (eiffel) on Mon 25 Jun 2007 - 12:26 pm UTC:

Thanks Kemlo for reminding me about the Google Friends Mailing List - I was
looking for that.

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