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December 07, 2005

Asking the Internet

The popularity of web search has changed the way we think about the Internet in some pretty odd ways. I've heard more than a few people struggling to answer a question who turn to their keyboard and proclaim, "I'll just ask the Internet�" while typing something into a search box.

Amazingly, that works in a lot of cases. When it comes to locating facts, such as the capital of India, web search rocks. But there are many times that keywords just don't cut it�times when you need to ask a question to a group of humans. You know, real people.

Personally, I usually just write up a blog post or use our internal "random" mailing list at work. It takes almost no time to send spam (err, I mean "email") to hundreds of coworkers who are willing to read and occasionally respond to seemingly random questions. But most people don't have ready access to such a group.

That's what Yahoo! Answers was designed for. We want to give anyone a place to tap the collective wisdom of the Internet for advice, recommendations, theories, jokes, ... whatever. Anyone can answer. It's free. And once your question is answered, you get to pick the best answer and the whole thread is archived and searchable. So in addition to getting answers, you're helping to add to the "the Internet's" collective knowledge.

Of course, it has categories for the questions, per category RSS feeds, notifications, and other goodies too. So if there's a topic you know a lot about or want to know more about, here's your chance to find a community of like minded people and spread the knowledge.

Jeremy Zawodny
Yahoo! Search

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Comments

This looks very interesting. But the categories are nowhere near being fine enough. I'd like to answer questions about a specific genre of music. I don't want my RSS feed to get overloaded with questions I'm not interested in. Maybe you could create subcategories, or RSS question feeds based on search terms that potential answerers supply.

Posted by: Sean O'Hagan | December 7, 2005 09:51 PM

Pretty cool gang. I checked it out and I think this is a great idea. While I think the categories and some other things could use a little tweaking here and there, I think you have done a great job overall. I logged in, and answered a couple of questions/gave my opinion on a couple of things I know a fair amount about. I am looking forward to looking at it more tomorrow when my eyes are open.

Posted by: Jason Golod | December 7, 2005 11:01 PM

Just gave it a try. Y! Answers has already won a user testimonial from myself: I just got my 1st question answered in ~15 min, and one of the answers I posted got chosen as best answer within half an hour. Real cool!

Posted by: Anita | December 8, 2005 06:46 AM

Amazing, web is becoming great day by fay. Bighand for yahoo.

Posted by: Tanaeem | December 8, 2005 08:37 AM

uh, didn't this already happen with wondir.com? and didn't you see what happened to the quality of the answers over time? honestly, you gotta take a cue from elGoog on this one: if you want to provide real answers, then charge variable prices and allow qualified-only-researchers to be the answering service in conjunction with the open internet...otherwise you are just begging to get ripped to shreds a la wikipedia...

Posted by: Anonymous | December 8, 2005 08:56 AM

this service has been successful for the top portal in Korea. its service called "knowledge search" in korea aggregates 80,000 answers per day for the last 4 years and the database has been didactic. you'll be suprised of the quality of the answers... some are better than what you can orginally find from standard search. and some of the answers that are unavailble on standard search are available.

I believe yahoo seeing this success in korea is trying to replicate this in the stats. but its a very cultural thing. i'm not sure if this can become a hit in the states.

Posted by: soros29 | December 8, 2005 10:15 AM

..and it took you so long to come up with something as simple and brilliant as this :-)

Posted by: An | December 8, 2005 03:12 PM

You are right- this blog feed has turned out well and unlike some of the lengthy blogs around- yours actually has someting to say! :)

Posted by: Kathie | December 8, 2005 04:39 PM

I am having problem with accessing Yahoo Answer. After sometime using it generates 999error. And then I can't access it before 12 hours

Posted by: Tanaeem | December 9, 2005 08:13 AM

1. I don't like the user interface. It should be more simple and intuitive.
Discover. Ask. Answer.

2. The avatars are nice :)

Posted by: Dimitar Vesselinov | December 9, 2005 11:26 AM

That's what Yahoo! Answers was designed for. We want to give anyone a place to tap the collective wisdom of the Internet for advice, recommendations, theories, jokes, ... whatever. Anyone can answer. It's free.

Hmmmmm. Jeremy -- really? That's what Wondir, www.wondir.com, was designed for. What a coincidence.

Posted by: Matt Koll | December 10, 2005 05:08 AM

Glad to see others using the 'collective wisdom' riff. I made a few more comments @ http://blog.kweschun.com/articles/2005/12/10/wisdom_vs_intelligence.

Posted by: Chris Nolan.ca | December 10, 2005 09:33 AM

Sean O'Hagan made an interesting proposal. To spice up Yahoo Answers a little, more specific categories might be of great advantage for users to join and help each other!

Anyway I strongly believe in the prosperity of Y! Answers

Posted by: Sebastian | December 12, 2005 02:10 PM

Is Yahoo answer just an Answer to Google Answers or its ahead of that to help the yahoo users?

I believe Yahoo! will prove itself in the coming times with Yahoo Answers

Posted by: Cathey Will | December 26, 2005 11:07 PM

I guess I know a little bit more about animals,there are cats with thumbs,they are called poldactyls or polycats.you can web search cats with thumbs and see alot of pics.I have a Maine Coon cat and 40% or better have thumbs.

Posted by: larryz | December 27, 2005 06:35 PM

Its a good move. Especially for me as a yahoo patron. Tired of seeing Google make new developments and eat into its market share. Hope this catapults Yahoo into a new league.
callcenter.ramshyam.com

Posted by: Call center | May 22, 2006 03:21 AM