The portal site
goo which has been in operation since 1997, has announced that it will end its service at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 25, 2025.
Notice of termination of 'goo Portal' service [
help.goo.ne.jp ] (Archived here [
archive.li...]
- The “goo” search engine service (written in lowercase) began in March 1997 under the umbrella of the NTT Resonant Inc. (then part of the NTT group) and was one of Japan’s early robot-type search engines. [nic.ad.jp ] The “goo service” began as a robot-type keyword search.
- By the late 1990s and early 2000s, “goo” expanded from purely search into a full portal site: news, weather, dictionary, email, blog, Q&A, etc.
“goo” was part of the early web portal competition in Japan, alongside others like Yahoo! JAPAN
According to local media, the shift to mobile, apps, social media over time eroded the central “portal homepage” usage. In recent years, smartphone usage and apps meant that “information capture via portals” declined, contributing to goo’s decision.
Not only is the goo portal shutting down, but also:
- goo News will end on 2025-06-18
- goo Dictionary ends on 2025-06-25
- goo Blog ends on 2025-11-18
- goo Mail is scheduled to end on 2026-02-25
After 28 years, the shutdown of “goo Portal” marks the end of an era: one of the web’s early Japanese portals that began in the dial-up era and grew into a multi-service portal.
