I've often thought of doing this but only using search engine links. You would find a good enough link through Google, Yahoo or MSN that answers their question and tell them to follow it.
Another thing that strikes me as interesting are the search queries that bring people to your site. Often people come to a site looking for specific answers and the web site owner does not know if they have found what they came looking for. A system that presents questions in such a way that there is a very simple answer to it would be pretty cool.
The scenario would be as follows...if someone comes to your site through a search engine you would offer them an option to have their query answered (assuming you can detect the difference between an information search and a normal search). This also assumes that they haven't found the info on your page. If they haven't found the answer then you ask if they are interested in having their query answered and if they wish to leave their email address. You then take the search query and put it on some sort of social website for answering Qs....like an iFrame at the right hand side of your page with random "Question of the Day".
Visitors to your site....or the webmaster himself could then write an answer which your back-end would go away and send an email to the person who was looking for the page.
so what search engine query examples do we have (source: from your ticker): -
- who is matt cutts?
- google talk and windows 98?
- google video downloader 2.0 ?
- Google browser English?
- google search for special characters?
- ftp of google.com?
I've added the question mark to the end of each of these queries. Clearly most have a simple "yes", "no" or "look at this web page" style answers which would be perfect for a new social style tool. |
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Thanks for mentioning my comments. Like I said, I wonder if we will still be talking about Yahoo Answers in 6 months. Only time will tell. With so much news and so many services it's hard to keep up and I can tell you that most people just don't know about them or even care. Most people are NOT early adopters.
Also, I would encourage you and your readers to look at part two of my story where I look at other services (most free) that offer Q&A options. For example, Wondir.com has been around for years and is much like Yahoo Answers. I also point out that libraries AROUND the world often IM chat Q&A services. Heck, in Australia its a national service run by the national library.
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051207-220451
And virtual reference services are available throughout the world either by phone, chat, or email. Here's one from a university in Frankfurt.
http://www.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/questionpoint/question.html
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I do a ton of question answering at the SDMB [1]. It's nice because it corresponds to a realworld entity (a newspaper column in the Chicago Reader). I've noticed at least one prominent Google Answers researcher hangs out there. I welcome Yahoo! to the game...i'm a little sad that Google hasn't done more with Google Answers...but then there /is/ usenet
[1] http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/index.php? |
