Internet giant Google pulled the plug on its Google Answers service this week, the first ever project the company developed beyond its core search technology.

Google Answers allowed users to hire a real person to research a question for them, rather than relying on the electronically generated search results. Google Answers will close its doors at the end of the week.

“Google is a company fuelled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time – and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product,” the company said.

Google said its Answers service was started four years ago as a “rough idea” and a small four person team turned it into reality in less than four months. “Google Answers was a great experiment that provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users. We'll continue to look for new ways to improve the search experience and to connect people to the information they want,” Google said.

The company has published the questions and answers posted over the last four or so years.

“Google Answers taught us exactly how many tyrannosaurs are in a gallon of gasoline, why flies survive a good microwaving, and why you really shouldn't drink water emitted by your air conditioner. Even closer to home, we learned one afternoon that our building might be on fire,” Google added.