This week LinkedIn announced that it will shut down LinkedIn Answers on January 31st.

The Quora-like Q&A service was introduced in 2007, and let you post a question to your network for answers. The original author could then rank the best answers and the person who provided the best would carry more weight for future answers.

Apparently the feature was driving fairly limited engagement. An email the company sent to its user base read, “We will be focusing our efforts on the development of new and more engaging ways to share and discuss professional topics across LinkedIn.”

Although LinkedIn might soon be without a dedicated Q&A feature, you can still share your knowledge and expertise with your network. Members can still pose questions and initiate conversations through other LinkedIn channels, including LinkedIn Polls, Groups, and status updates.

Additionally, Quora and LinkedIn teamed up last December to make it easier for you to share contributions to your LinkedIn profile. This feature can be enabled by visiting your Quora settings page.

[Via: Mashable, Image credit: Jeff Wright]