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Google definitions

DPic [PersonRank 10]

Thursday, March 29, 2007
17 years ago2,549 views

When you do a search for anything on Google, if it contains one term and there is a definition if it on Answers.com Google will provide a link which says "definition" as you can see here
http://lh6.google.com/image/danny.piccirillo/RgtM5rW05DI/AAAAAAAAAeg/FTObMiIlV4g/s.jpg
it reads "Personalized Results 1 – 10 of about 400,000,000 for Answers [definition]. (0.22 seconds)"

If there are multiple terms, the terms themselves will be links to their corresponding answers.com pages as you can see here
http://lh6.google.com/image/danny.piccirillo/RgtM5rW05EI/AAAAAAAAAeo/XYHEPu2UPAA/s1.jpg
it reads "Personalized Results 1 – 10 of about 96,400,000 for Answers is down. (0.20 seconds)"

But for the past few days, answers.com has been down for most of the time and those links go nowhere. Also, why does Google chose to trust answers.com over any other site for this?

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Because of the brown envelope.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

They might have some kind of partnership with Answers.com, either that or they're just sending them free traffic (if I hear back from them I'll post an update). Previously, they used web 1.0 website Dictionary.com, but they switched to the more fresh-looking Answers.com in January 2005. I use this feature a lot...

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Here is Answer.com's statement to us:

<<The only formal relationships we have with Google are our Adsense advertising contract – we put their ads on many of our pages – and the fact that we use Google as a “backup” service when someone sends us a query that we can’t answer. As we’ve stated numerous times on our earnings calls, the “Definition” link is an informal relationship without an agreement of any kind.>>

DPic [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Any explanation as to why they have been down for so long?

Answers Support [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Answers.com is alive and well, DPic, which may explain why nobody else has confirmed this for you. You might check your firewall, clear your cache, try another browser, etc.

If you're still having troubles connecting to our servers, please contact our Support Team directly via http://www.answers.com/main/contact_us.jsp . Please be sure to provide details of your OS, browser, security software, and any other information that could help us troubleshoot this with you.

[Fixed URL – Ionut]

DPic [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I see that it is working for me now, though when it wasn't i did clear my cache and try accessing from different computers. Also, if i was still having connection problems, i would not be able to access the page to contact your support team :)

Answers Support [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

True enough. :-)
Glad to hear it's working for you. If you ever need assistance, though, feel free to write us at: support (you-know-what-goes-here) answers.com.
But we do prefer the feedback form, if possible.

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