Questions were organised into categories with multiple sub-categories under each to cover every topic users may ask questions on, such as beauty, business, finance, cars, electronics, entertainment, games, gardening, science, news, politics, parenting, pregnancy, and travel.

The number of poorly formed questions and inaccurate answers made the site a target of ridicule.

[4][5][6] On April 20, 2021, the website switched to read-only and users were no longer able to ask or answer questions.

Answers was launched in mid-2005 for internal alpha testing by Director of Engineering Ofer Shaked.

[14] The site gave members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation and was based on Naver's Knowledge iN.

Yahoo gave reduced usage of the site as the reason for shutting down, saying "it has become less popular over the years.

[25][26] The same day the site shut down, the wider Yahoo brand was sold to Apollo Global Management.

[30] Chat was explicitly forbidden in the Community Guidelines, although categories like Politics and Religion & Spirituality were mostly opinion.

In extreme (but rare) cases (for a Terms of Service violation), the abuser's entire Yahoo!

[33] Points and levels had no real world value, could not be traded, and served only to indicate how active a user had been on the site.

Users also received ten points for contributing the "Best Answer" which was selected by the question's asker.

Answers community manager has said "power users" who defend the company should be thanked and rewarded.

Before April 20, 2012, users levels 5 and above could give an unlimited number of questions, answers, and comments.

The point system ostensibly encouraged users to answer as many questions as they possibly could, up to their daily limit.

Answers staff kept secret the conditions of becoming a TC, many theories existed among users, for example: Out of these, none had an official status.

[38] These badges were found under the name of the companies or organizations who share their personal knowledge and experience with the members of Yahoo!

Studies of user typology on the site revealed that some users ("specialists") answered from personal knowledge while others ("synthesists") used external sources to construct answers – synthesists tending to accumulate more reward points.

[39] Adamic et al. looked at the ego networks of users and showed that it was possible to distinguish "answer people" from "discussion people" with the former found in specialist categories for factual information, such as mathematics and the latter more common in general interest categories, such as marriage and wrestling.

[40] Kim and Oh looked at the comments given by users on choosing best answers and showed that content completeness, solution feasibility and personal agreement/confirmation were the most significant criteria.

[41] Researchers found that questions seeking factual information received few answers and that the knowledge on Yahoo!

[31] "Internet language" including incorrect spelling and improper grammar also contributed to Yahoo!

[45] The number of poorly formed questions and inaccurate answers made the site a target of ridicule.

Answers in 2005, the Director of Product Management would use a Gemmy Kung Fu Hamster to summon employees to meetings.

The toy was a battery-operated, dancing, musical plush hamster clothed in a karate uniform.

At the beginning of 2006, the green smiley face was replaced by the cartoon Yamster clad in a karate uniform.

[50] As of November 2009[update], the history of Yamster, complete with photos of the toy, was available on the Yahoo!

During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney posted questions on Yahoo!

[55] Other guests included international leaders (Queen Rania of Jordan,[56] candidate for United Nations Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor[57]), Nobel Peace Prize laureates (Al Gore,[58][59] Muhammad Yunus[60]) and other international activists (Bono,[58] Jean-Michel Cousteau[61]), intellectuals (Stephen Hawking,[58] Marilyn vos Savant[59]), and numerous other celebrities.

[73][74] The McElroys held a memorial for Yahoo Answers in the episode "Funeral for a Friend", shortly ahead of the service's closure.

There were several communities on social media sites such as Reddit and Facebook dedicated to observing his antics, especially on Yahoo!