Oct 26, 2025 15:25:00

Portal site 'goo Portal' to end service in November 2025

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 – goo Help
https://help.goo.ne.jp/help/article/2904/

'goo' began its service in 1997 as a 'robot-type search engine' within the NTT Group's online services. A robot-type search engine is one in which a crawler automatically patrols the Internet, collecting information and creating an index. Google and other search engines use the same system, but Yahoo! JAPAN, the most popular search engine in Japan in the late 1990s, was a directory-type search engine that registered websites by category.

In 1998, the service expanded to become a portal site, and services such as the free email account 'goo mail' were launched. In addition to search and email, the portal also offered services such as news and dictionaries.

Prior to the portal's closure,

goo News and goo Dictionary will be discontinued in June 2025, and the Q&A service 'Oshiete! goo' and goo Ranking will be discontinued in September 2025.

Also, goo blog will end on November 18, 2025.

[Addendum] Notice of termination of goo blog service - goo blog Staff Blog
https://blog.goo.ne.jp/staffblog/e/c59488fc72553bca60517b642b84faac

At the same time as the portal is shutting down, the trend information site 'ImaTopi' will also be shutting down.

Imatopi ~A site of great curiosity~
https://ima.goo.ne.jp/

Goo Mail is scheduled to end its service on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. New applications have already been suspended as of August 1, 2025, and users will be advised to switch to OCN Mail or other services after the service ends. After the service ends, users will no longer be able to use their goo email address.

Regarding the termination of goo Mail service | OCN Customer Support
https://support.ocn.ne.jp/mail-goo/information/detail/pid250000283b/

By the way, goo launched its service at 'goo.ne.jp' because the 'goo.co.jp' domain had already been acquired at the time of its launch. Later, the 'GOO' trademark was acquired.
The domain 'goo.co.jp,' which looks very similar to goo, has been used as a forwarding address for adult sites since 1999, so goo applied for a transfer of ownership. The company that owns goo.co.jp filed a lawsuit in protest. The Tokyo District Court dismissed the plaintiff's lawsuit, and the Tokyo High Court also dismissed the appeal on appeal, resulting in a ruling in favor of goo.

NTT-X wins lawsuit over domain name 'goo.co.jp' | Nikkei CrossTech (xTECH)
https://xtech.nikkei.com/it/free/NC/NEWS/20020426/4/

NTT-X wins appeal over right to use 'goo.co.jp' domain name
https://internet.watch.impress.co.jp/www/article/2002/1017/goo.htm