Thursday, June 22, 2006

Google Answers Question Removed

Recently Google Answers removed a question from blogger Steve Hall, who asked “What percentage of Google searches are contextual?” (Google Answers is Google’s question & Answer site where anyone can pose a question for a price, and a group of accepted researchers can then tackle to answer the question. Disclosure: I was accepted as researcher for the Google Answers site once, though I didn’t actively answer questions as researcher for some years.) Steve, being a blogger, naturally blogged this. I asked another researcher for an explanation, and I also asked the Google Answers support. Google told me this:

Questions about Google, Google Search, and search engine optimization are not allowed because Google Answers researchers are not employees of Google. Researchers don’t have access to any “inside” information. The information they do have access to is available for free on the Google help pages or by writing to Google support.

In the meantime, Steve Hall got an explanation from Google too. Google Answers support tells him:

We’d like to clarify the reason for removal of this question. Please note that Google Answers researchers are not employees of Google. They are independent contractors, and they only have access to information about Google and Google Search that is publicly available. Therefore, all users with questions about Google and/or Google Search are directed to these Google support pages.

[Thanks MB.]

Google Answers Question R ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (14)

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