October 20, 2009

Aardvark Launches Website: Social Search Meets Answers Site Mashup

Aardvark has launched its new social search site at vark.com. Though previously it was available through IM, Twitter, and email, having a presence as a bona fide website seems to be a boost.

Aardvark's version of social search is more like an answers site than other social search sites. To test it out, I first asked a question about last night's Monday Night Football game because I didn't catch the final score.

Yes, it is easy to just go to ESPN.com and look it up. But the advantage of Aardvark is similar to SMS search - go on about your day while someone else does the searching. Of course, a question about Monday Night Football wouldn't even require searching. I knew some dudes out there watched the game.

It feels a lot like throwing a question out to your Twitter or Facebook networks, but those contacts don't always want to answer questions. At Aardvark, the whole point is answering questions.

Here's how it works.

Type in your question and wait for a response. People in the Aardvark community will answer it. You'll get an email when they do. You can also answer other people's questions.

The only thing I didn't like was Aardvark's extensive sign-up process. They have Facebook connect, which is normally a quick way to use a membership site. But then they made me sign up for an Aardvark account as well. If I wasn't a search blogger, I can't say that I would have signed up for yet another site. As a search blogger, using the site was pretty fun, so I recommend signing up anyway.

One thing that would be nice to see Aardvark incorporate is real-time updates and a more seamless way of accessing questions. Perhaps links to a user's most recent questions on the right hand sidebar for easy access and then sidebar updating as the user asks questions and answers come in. Instead, the page must be manually refreshed - and only links to a separate page with your Q&As appears.

These are relatively minor pet peeves at launch. There are obviously some smart dudes behind Aardvark so keep an eye on how this site evolves.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 2, 2009

WikiAnswers Holds Virtual Amazing Race-Type Competition

If you're a fan of the hit reality show Amazing Race, you'll now have your chance to play a similar competition - in virtual reality. The WikiAnswers 93 Experience has begun and runs until September 9, 2009.

There are three events in the competition: town hall sessions; the AnswerHunt, and a Video Contest.

AnswerHunt is the Amazing Race-type contest where you travel around the world couch potato-style. Travel around the WikiAnswers world to find clues, figure out riddles and complete tasks.

If pure fun isn't incentive enough, then consider that the total prize values for the competition add up to $4,000.

Will you play the 93 Experience? Let us know your plans in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 10, 2008

hiogi to Provide Q&A for Skype

hiogi has been tapped to provide a Q&A search for Skype. This will allow Skype users to ask search questions and get answers directly through Skype. This can be done via mobile or desktop.

"hiogi for Skype mobile is the easiest way to receive quick answers while traveling," says Bjoern Behrendt, CEO of hiogi. "It's like chatting with a good friend, who is always willing to help and who knows everything."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 20, 2008

What a Searcher Wants: Answers

The US market share of Q&A site traffic grew a whopping 118% last year, according to a new report by Hitwise. Yahoo! Answers is far and away the leader of the answer sites, with 74.5% of the US market.

But other answer sites are slowly but surely gaining ground. WikiAnswers came in second with 18.5%, while AnswerBag came in at 4.51%, though that was still an 83% gain over last year. Ask MetaFilter remained around the same at 1.80%, but Askville got a 316% increase, though they came in at only 0.85%.

Hitwise Research Director, Heather Dougherty, had this to say about the trend: "Online users are increasingly seeking advice from question and answer websites that leverage shared knowledge contributed across a community of experts and enthusiasts. The popularity of user generated media has helped to establish a category for social knowledge where consumers can obtain answers from a single aggregated source developed through others asking similar questions."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:27 AM | Permalink

August 22, 2007

How Many Vandals?

Exactly 187,529 different organizations have made at least one anonymous Wikipedia edit. That seems like a very large number of editors who wanted to hide their changes -- but were they all vandals?

Grad student Virgil Griffith created WikiScanner recently to uncover surreptitious editors. He's certainly raised awareness of these activities, as reported by Wired and amplified by the NYTimes last Sunday. Some pretty well-known companies and even the CIA are making these edits to Wikipedia entries.

On his site, Griffith identifies three kinds of vandalism and disinformation. “Without naming names, I've found three types of common vandalism: (1) Wholesale removal of entire paragraphs of critical information; (2) White-washing -- replacing negative/neutral adjectives with positive adjectives that mean something similar; and (3) Adding negative information to a competitor's page.”

He used publicly available information, starting with Wikipedia's database dumps between early August 2007 and February 2002. He discovered over 34 million anonymous edits in that time period. Then he identified organizations based on IP addresses, using IP2Location tools.

Why does it matter? Simply put, Wikipedia attracts traffic that's interested in your organization. Craig Paddock reported that "despite its current use of no-follow tags, Wikipedia's ability to generate high-quality traffic can be equal to or better than that of most search engines."

Like any social community, organizations and their marketers should pay attention to this user-generated content and to their online reputations. However, the marketers should not be hiding in plain sight. My hope is that this “revealing” process will drive down anonymous posters. Correct things publicly, and let your customers speak for themselves too.

Posted by at 3:41 PM | Permalink

November 29, 2006

Goodbye Google Answers

Wow. Google is shutting down its Google Answers service. The company has announced that new questions won't be accepted after the New Year, though the site will continue to let people view the question archives. Killing off the service, which never seemed to catch on much, certainly will help Google seem like it is focusing efforts toward more needed areas. But it still feels like an odd, almost surrendering move in the face of Yahoo Answers being such a success.

Back in April, I did a long roundup on how answering services in general had never really caught on in terms of popularity. It covered how Google's nearly four year old service generated practically no traffic for Google, plus looked at similar services that came and went.

But in June, I had to admit that my being dubious in terms of Yahoo Answers was off the mark. The service kept notching up tons of traffic, and Yahoo continues to put its weight behind it, to the point of even more integration last week of Yahoo Answers material into regular results.

Look Out Wikipedia, Here Comes Yahoo Answers! from me is my long look at the service and some of the factors in its success. Unlike Google Answers, it doesn't charge. And unlike Google Answers, there are a lot of "answers" that are more discussions happening rather than searches being fulfilled.

Even if there's a lot of chatting going on, I think there's no denying that Yahoo Answers turned into the social success that Yahoo hoped its 360 service or My Web would be. There's a entire active community taking part in Yahoo Answers, and some of those are going to translate into Yahoo searchers.

That action's not lost on Microsoft, which kicked off its Windows Live QnA service in August. I haven't seen a ton of buzz like with Yahoo coming out of it, so maybe lighting only strikes once, in this case. I'm sure Hitwise will run some stats for everyone later today to update us on the space, so watch the blog over there (note: numbers now up). But you can't help but feel Google may have missed out on what Yahoo managed to tap into.

Then again, killing off Google Answers might ultimately be a way for Google to relaunch with something fresh and radically different. We'll see. Killing it off remains far better than leaving things like Google Voice Search still up with a note to "check back in a little while," when it hasn't run for years. I suspect we'll see Google Catalogs get retired as well -- the last Ikea catalog over there seem to be from 2002. I'd say retiring experiments and services that haven't caught on is less embarrassing than leaving them out there doing badly, so Google making the right choice.

Postscript: Gary Price reminds me that Marissa Mayer of Google said not too long ago that 60 to 80 percent of Google products may "crash and burn," so at least Google can say they already said this might happen :)

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 5:08 AM | Permalink

November 21, 2006

Answers.com Integrates Yahoo Answers Into Content

Answers.com announced that they have integrated Yahoo Answers directly into their content. So if you do a search at Answers.com, you should see at the bottom right portion of the page, a box for Yahoo Answers results that match on those keywords. Gary Price has more sample searches and expert opinion on this integration.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:38 AM | Permalink

November 6, 2006

ChaCha Search: Take Two

When "human-powered" search engine ChaCha launched in September it was a great idea with very flawed execution. The site offers algorithmic search, but also IM-chat based search with actual people in real time. Here's my previous post on ChaCha. Today, the site has gone from "alpha" to "beta" based on lessons learned during the alpha period. And it appears from casual searching there have been some significant improvements.

According to the press release issued today, "Since launching the experimental Alpha version in September 2006, more than 14,000 people have entered the system to serve as ChaCha guides with as many as 1,500 guides being added on any given day. The fast-growing guide community has been instrumental in ChaCha's accelerated Beta development, as they have been working around the clock to help end users find information online."

I spoke to CEO Scott Jones late last week about the discoveries and improvements ChaCha had made during the past few months. He said he was surprised by the number of people using guide-based search. "I would have thought 95% would search without the guide, but it's been more like 40% using the guides."

Jones said that ChaCha's guides are drawn from three primary pools: retirees, college students and stay/work-at-home moms. "I thought our target market for guides was going to be college students, but the thing that took off was work-at-home moms."

Guides are qualified and paid according to an elaborate system. But Jones explained that guides have the capacity to make as much as $20,000 per year at the top end. But he also said that they've instituted strict controls to ensure quality and are working to get better and better guides into the system.

The guide-discovered search results are integrated into the algorithmic results and given priority in subsequent searches. I conducted four searches to test ChaCha in beta:

• Best Thai food in Los Angeles: ChaCha, Google, Yahoo
• How many smartphones will there be in 2010 in the US: ChaCha, Google, Yahoo
• Best non-toxic household cleaning products: ChaCha, Google, Yahoo
• Thanksgiving recipes: ChaCha, Google, Yahoo

These were all traditional searches without using the guides and the results were quite competitive I thought. The site was essentially not working in Firefox, but worked fine in IE. In a couple of cases I tried these same searches using guides but they were busy; however algorithmic results were provided. In one case I did have an interaction with a guide.

Here's the transcript in the context of a search for "Best non-toxic household cleaning products":

Status: Looking for a guide ... Status: Connected to guide: melindam melindam: Welcome to ChaCha! You: Best non-toxic household cleaning products melindam: Hi, how are you? You: fine melindam: I'm sorry, it says you're searching for Thanksgiving recipes. Let me change that and I will look for you. You: that was my previous search You: sorry melindam: No problem :-) You: now I'm looking for something different melindam: Ok, one moment please. melindam: I appreciate your patience while I find exactly what you need. melindam: Look at that one while I find more please. (Result found: mrsmeyers.com) You: That's a commercial result You: Mrs. Meyer's is a brand not an "objective" source melindam: Ok. Are you wanting a personal opinion? You: I'd like a reputable source that gives me a range of products and evaluates them, thanks. melindam: You asked for non-toxic cleaning products. Are you looking for reviewes or products? You: The word "best" implies an evaluation melindam: Well the word best is subjective. melindam: All companies say they have the best. You: Now we're having a philosophical argument You: "Best" can be subjective You: but it can also be a judgment resulting from tests You: or expert evaluation melindam: Let me transfer you to someone who may be give you better results. Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better! Looking for guide ...

I didn't pursue it with the second guide. While I was waiting and interacting with "melindam," there was video running in the upper right of the screen. This offers a brand advertising opportunity and takes some of the pain out of waiting for the human to conduct the search.

The guides represent both a burgeoning social network with its own possibilities and a word-of-mouth marketing force. These are two elements that suggest the site will develop some staying power and find a market.

Jones and I talked for awhile about brands and search and the role that brand plays in search loyalty. He told me that he spend considerable time thinking and working on the ChaCha brand, "Cha means search in Chinese, and it's a dance -- to achieve a search result."

What are the most popular searches on ChaCha?

1. google.com
2. amazon.com
3. digg.com
4. weather.com
5. ask.com

Posted by Greg Sterling at 9:19 AM | Permalink

September 19, 2006

Why Is Wikipedia Advertising On Google?

Wikipedia Advertising Shows Up on Google from Micro Persuations covers how Wikipedia is apparently advertising content on Google. A search on crowdsourcing in Google brings up a Wikipedia ad in the sponsored listing area that says:

Crowdsourced Software 1. Harness this exciting wave. 2. Save money or make money! wikipedia.org/Crowdsourcing

Yes, the same landing page is shown on the organic listings as well. So why would the Wikipedia be spending money on those ads? Is it even Wikipedia who is purchasing those ads? Maybe it is a 3rd party that is interested in getting more content added to certain Wikipedia pages. Maybe there is some financial interest on that page for some company?

Postscript Barry: ClickZ has a quote from Wayne Saewyc, a Wikimedia spokesperson saying, "As far as I am aware, the Wikimedia Foundation is not purchasing Google ads, or any other advertisements for that matter."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:08 AM | Permalink

September 14, 2006

Checking Back Links From Wikipedia Articles

Steve Rubel spotted a new page at Wikipedia that allows you to quickly locate all the links pointing to a specific site from within the Wikipedia. This page allows you to enter in a domain, and it will bring back all the pages that have links pointing to that domain from within the Wikipedia. For example, Search Engine Watch has 107 citations from the Wikipedia, just search using the syntax *.searchenginewatch.com to find out. It is a great way to see what types of Wiki links you have and also to see how people are using your content in a positive or negative way towards your brand.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:46 AM | Permalink

September 12, 2006

Big Brands: Do You Know What Wikipedia Saying About You Via Google?

Steve Rubel produced a small study on the top 100 advertisers, according to AdAge, to see where in the Google rankings does the brand's Wikipedia entry fall. For example, a search on the well-known automobile brand Chevrolet shows a Wikipedia entry for them at the number four result. What that Wikipedia entry says about your company can have a huge impact on your brand, given that Google will be driving traffic to Wikipedia. The study showed that the Wikipedia entry listed in the Google results for the top 100 brands, on average was at position 11. But Steve Rubel explains that many of those brands have listings within the top 10 and some even the top 5 for their brand name.

Steve explains that if you have a lot of domain names for your company, then the Wikipedia entry will most likely be pushed down the results. Also, he said Yahoo, MSN and Ask all have similar responses, but they are not documented in his study. He finally links and summarized an adAge.com article named Your Brand on Wikipedia.

FYI - this is part of online reputation management.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:41 AM | Permalink

September 4, 2006

New Engine 'ChaCha' Offers Real-Time Answers From Live 'Guides'

Part Wikipedia, part Yahoo Answers and part About.com, ChaCha is a new search engine with a compelling hook – real-time results from human beings. The site launches (in "Alpha") today and offers users two ways to search: traditional algorithmic results or help from live "guides." Users interact with guides via an embedded instant messaging window in the search results page.

Brad Bostic, co-founder of ChaCha, said that the site had lined up about 2500 guides at launch: college students, retirees, stay-at-home moms and others "who are online all day anyway." But not just anyone can become a guide apparently; you have to be "sponsored" (invited by an existing guide) and work your way up a hierarchy consisting of four levels.

New guides are considered "apprentices" and are matched with areas of personal interest and expertise. New guides also have mentors, more experienced guides who monitor their work. Apprentices cannot interact with the public initially and must pass several tests for speed, quality and accuracy. If they meet these requirements they become "pros."

Pros then get the chance to interact with the public and will be paid (US$5 per "search hour"). After pro come two other levels: "master" and ultimately "elite." Elite-level guides make US$10 per search hour. But once you become a master you're eligible to earn 10% of what your "network" makes. Your network consists of those you've brought into the "ChaCha Underground" (the community of guides).

The challenges of this entire concept obviously revolve around the cost structure and how many guides ChaCha can recruit to make the real-time aspect of this work well. It was clear from my conversation with Bostic, however, that ChaCha has carefully thought through these issues. The company has developed financial and ego-based incentives to recruit and retain guides and various mechanisms to help maximize the quality of their results.

While Bostic believes that most people will get and stay involved because of altruistic reasons (think Wikipedia), the modest financial rewards and four levels of "initiation" (my term) may add additional appeal for prospective guides. As mentioned, there's also a community aspect. Guides have profiles, featuring their areas of expertise and most recent answers. They're also rated by users.

The site is ad supported and already has a number of display advertisers as well as sponsored links. The key will be to keep the ad revenues climbing higher than the contractor fees. But Bostic assured me that ChaCha had crunched theses numbers many times. (This ChaCha Underground, if it grows, becomes another social network and advertising vehicle in itself.)

Like most new site launches of late, the first few days are likely to be shaky. I performed a number of searches with very mixed results. I had trouble getting algorithmic results several times and was only able to connect with a guide once. This was disappointing but probably due to last-minute engineering issues and fine tuning before launch.

The following is a verbatim IM transcript from my single interaction with a guide (a male who's name I've replaced with "guide"). My query was "Best LA hotel to stay in with kids?"

Guide: Welcome to ChaCha! Please wait a moment while I search for your results. Guide: Please hold a moment. Guide: I will find a good result for you. You: still looking? Guide: I appreciate your patience while I find exactly what you need. Guide: I am looking for details on kid-friendly hotels. You: thanks Guide: I have found several but will soon have one that is well-suited for your search. Guide: Do you want 5, 4, or 3 stars? Guide: hotel rating that is. You: how about most stars for under $200 per night Guide: OK - one moment. Guide: how many beds? You: 2 Guide: ok. Guide: Kids stay free at these. You: okay, thanks Guide: Let me check on the rates. Guide: The nice thing is that these both have full suites. Guide: So if you are with kids, you have refridge, etc... Guide: Is that good for you?

The entire interaction and elapsed time of the search was a little over three minutes. (Users will also automatically be offered algorithmic results while the guide is searching.) The results he ultimately sent were two hotels from an aggregator site. In fairness this is a difficult query to answer effectively in a short time frame. The guide doesn't know my personal preferences and he didn't ask where in Los Angeles I wanted to stay. But I did get two reasonable results.

The promise of people answering search queries will likely bring out qualitative and opinion-based questions, which is also what's going on over at Yahoo Answers. Fewer fact-based queries will likely be directed at guides because they are easier for people to answer on their own through conventional search.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to connect more than once to check the performance of the guides on other types of queries. But on Friday when I was briefed by Bostic, he and I went through two successful sessions with guides in real time. One was fact based and one opinion oriented.

Social search engines, which have been proliferating, are trying to leverage human expertise to offer a more relevant index or qualitatively better search experience. Chris Sherman recently wrote "Who's Who in Social Search," which provides an overview of the different categories and different companies in the space. In many ways, however, ChaCha's concept of guides providing real-time answers is the ultimate expression of social search.

One of the challenges that MSN Search has faced since it launched is that it's not obviously different or better than Google or Yahoo and thus it has struggled to gain market share. My belief is that people have search habits that are well established at this point and getting them to change is harder than most people believe.

But ChaCha does have an obvious differentiator in the form of its live guides. Many people will immediately like this concept and the experience of interacting with a person in conducting online research. But as Bostic said to me, "The Devil is in the details." Indeed, the actual performance of the guides and the quality of the ChaCha search experience as a whole will determine adoption or its opposite.

Because of the network of human guides, ChaCha is not easily or quickly duplicated by others, including the major engines. But they will be watching to see how ChaCha performs and how people respond.

ChaCha will not rise up and supplant market leaders any time soon. Yet if the site can recruit enough guides and make the live search experience fast and effective it will gain adoption. But the ultimate test will probably be determined not by any rational comparison of search results but by something more intangible: whether users think that ChaCha's live guides will do better than they can by themselves.

Post Script: Research master, Ask director and librarian extraordinaire Gary Price previously wrote a long post about Q&A services here and real-time library based search assistance here.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 4:45 AM | Permalink

August 30, 2006

Windows Live QnA Beta Now Live

The Windows Live QnA Blog announced the other day that Windows Live QnA is now a public beta, meaning you can test it out yourself at http://qna.live.com/. Question and Answer search engines are now the new hot social search thing. Yahoo has been pouring money and promotions into Yahoo Answers and Google has their Google Answers product for a while. We covered QnA in the past, the first time was when they had a private beta and the second time is when we saw some screen captures posted. We may have a more detailed review on Windows Live QnA in the future, for now, you can play with it at http://qna.live.com/.

Postscript From Danny: I couldn't help but laugh at the top question I saw when I popped in, which is better, window live QnA or Yahoo Answers?. And you've got to love that among the top superstars who answer questions is this person, yahoo_answers_sucks.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:18 AM | Permalink

August 29, 2006

InsiderPages' 'Answers'

InsiderPages, one of the top "social directory" sites, has launched its equivalent of Yahoo!'s Answers: "Insider Advice." It's only available to members but allows people to ask open-ended questions of the community. The press release offers an explanation and some examples:

Posting a question on Insider Advice is quick and easy. Members simply click on the Insider Advice button, type in a question and hit “submit”. They can add as much detail or background to their question as they like. Insider Pages alerts them to replies to their queries via email and then they can sit back and read the thoughts, ideas and experiences their friends and neighbors have to share on the topic.

• “Good places in the Bay Area for a father-son camping trip?” –Mitch G., Los Altos, CA
• “What should I pack in my very picky 5 year old's lunch?” –Kathy S., Valencia, CA
• “Where's a pretty, outdoor place to take wedding photos in the area?” –Suzanne A., Garden City, MI
• “Could you share your experiences at the labor and delivery ward of the hospital where I plan to deliver?” –Rachel S., Longview, TX
• “Who has the best cooking classes in Palo Alto?” –Marcelo C., Palo Alto, CA
• “The Pros and Cons of œ day vs. full day Kindergarten?” –Angela B., Aurora, IN

InsiderPages' competitor JudysBook has a similar feature. And Yelp offers a "talk" feature that is similar but broader. These sites also offer profiles and the equivalent of local blogs for people to share their favorites and recommendations.

At a basic level, traditional yellow pages publishers (e.g., SuperPages) are adding ratings and reviews to their sites, but the social directory sites are far ahead in that game. The traditional publishers would do well to study these sites and take a cue from some of their more engaging features.

The mix of traditional local directory functionality, together with dynamic maps, user reviews and the ability to ask for "word of mouth" referrals is a valuable combination of features that represent the next generation yellow pages product.

Finally, InsiderPages has launched a local "best of" print directory that it mails to members. This "reverse published" directory vaguely resembles a Zagat directory and helps brand InsiderPages and extend the value of its online product. As I've said previously, the combination of online and offline assets is a key to winning in local.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 12:27 PM | Permalink

July 7, 2006

Dr. Stephen Hawking Turns To Yahoo Answers For How Humans Will Survive; Bono Posts Too

Wow. Dr. Stephen Hawking, yes, the real Stephen Hawking, has turned to Yahoo Answers for help. How can the human race survive the next hundred years?, he asks, in a question that Yahoo reassures us is really from the famous physicist and not a joke. And stay tuned, because Yahoo's planning to get U2's Bono to post later today.

How's it going for Hawking? There were 15,867 answers when I looked. That means his next question should be, "How can I review all these answers?" The answer is to sit back and let the Yahoo Answers community itself do it. It will be interesting to see what's voted as the best answer.

For more on Yahoo Answers, see my past article, Look Out Wikipedia, Here Comes Yahoo Answers!

Postscript: Bono has added his post now on ending poverty, says Yahoo. Hawking Seeks Answers on Yahoo from the Associated Press also has some nice background on his involvement and how Yahoo staffers will help him sift through responses.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:13 AM | Permalink

June 22, 2006

Google Answers: Ask Whatever You Like, Except About Google

We wrote earlier about Google pulling a question at Google Answers about Google. Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped followed-up further and found that Google officially disallows people to ask questions about the company because the researchers at Google Answers aren't Google employees.

Got that? Freelance researchers are apparently qualified to answer questions about any other company in the world, but when it comes to Google, special treatment is required. Incredible.

In Google Answers Question Removed, Philipp says he was told:

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.

And Steve Hall, who started this all when his question was rejected earlier this week, was told:

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.

In the comments to Steve's post, someone raises a good point that Google might have this policy to help keep those getting responses from thinking they are getting "official" information from Google. I can understand that. But that can also be dealt with differently than just removing questions wholescale. And no questions on search engine optimization, as Philipp was told? Please.

For the record, the Google Answers FAQ says this about questions that aren't allowed:

Google Answers discourages and may remove questions that:

• request private information about individuals
• want assistance in conducting illegal activities
• are meant to sell or advertise products
• refer or relate to adult content
• are homework or exam questions
• seek specific information about Google or Google Answers (email answers-support@google.com instead)

Fair to say, I think that last line should go. People should be able to ask about Google and Google Answers, at the very least because such restrictions make the entire system seem silly.

More important, the Google help pages and other information about Google do NOT have everything you'd want to know about Google. Consider:

• How does Google technically perform censorship in China? (Answer -- see this good New York Times article, with info not on the Google web site that I know of)  
• How did a web site recently get so many spam pages indexed so quickly in Google? (Answer -- our article is one of many that explains its both a glitch with Google's site: command plus probably just a big problem with Google's spam control pages, something not covered on the Google web site)  
• Is it cloaking if the New York Times puts up a page in front of those clicking from Google to reach paid articles? (Answer -- it's a matter of debate, as going on in our Search Engine Watch Forums. Google has general guidelines, but there's no agreement on whether these apply. And there's nothing on the Google site giving a definitive answer).

Out of curiosity, I did a little searching at Google Answers to see if much was getting through about Google. Not much, that I could see. But this question caught my eye, Mod Rewrite code for the .htaccess file. It asks:

I have a website called www.greathostels.com it is written in php i need to know the code to put in the htaccess file to make it search engine friendly using mod_rewrite as at the moment its not effectivly spidered.

The answer was a list of pointers to other sites, all of which look pretty useful to me, someone who is not an expert. But the person asking also raised a good point:

If asking a Php code question i think the answer should be provided by someone who knows PhP code.

Which got him this over-the-top response:

Apparently you negelected to read the FAQs for the Google Answers service:

"Are Researchers experts in their field?"

"All Google Researchers are tested to ensure that they are expert searchers with excellent communication skills. Some of them also have expertise in various fields. Your question may be answered by an expert in a particular field or by an expert searcher. Either way, if you are unsatisfied with your answer for any reason, you may apply for a full refund." http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html#experts

Our job is to provide an answer to your question. If we personally lack the expertise to do so, we seek out authoritative resources on the internet.

Therefore, I referred you to an authoritative site which provided information which was extremely specific to your question. To imply that the authors of The SEO Toolset website are not experts in their topic, when they authored precisely the information you requested, and created precisely the URL Rewriting Tool which you so badly need, is the heighth of insolence and absurdity.

I would request that my answer be removed by the editors, simply to remove the taint of my association with you, but they tend not to remove answers which have satisfactorily answered the question.

If you ever plan to use this service again, I suggest you register under a different username, given the fact that other researchers will be more than reluctant to deal with someone who doesn't bother to inform themselves about what to expect from the service.

Ouch. I can understand the researcher feeling slighted. But it's also a fair opinion to have, that it would be nice if an actual expert in the area answered the question. Which brings it back to Google's censorship of questions about itself. It's OK for people to research things like PHP and rewriting, even if they have no expertise in them -- but Google itself is too sensitive a topic?

Oh, but remember, people can write to Google Support to get real expert advice. You mean like I did when Gmail went down for me last week? You mean like Tom Foremski did over at Silicon Valley Watcher when Gmail went down for him yesterday? I don't think he got a response. I know I didn't -- and this is now a week after I had my problem.

Instead, I hunted and hunted through support areas and eventually guessed that a solution for an entirely different problem might work for me. It did. But go read my Getting Gmail To Resume POP Access With Captcha Unlock article, because it explains just how lame the Gmail support documentation is in terms of helping people with this problem. And yet, that's what Google Answers thinks is fine for people to use instead of being able to ask questions?

And as for company questions, while asking about Google is off limits, these are fine:

• RSS Feed and Yahoo
• Microsoft's battle against open source software development / Linux
• Help Me Reinstall iTunes

Apparently, having researchers answer questions about other companies without inside information is OK. It's only Google itself that needs special protection.

What do you think? Should the policy change? I'm going to ask in two places and will postscript links here. The first will be our Search Engine Watch Forums. The second will be Yahoo Answers, where there are no restrictions about asking about Google -- or Yahoo -- that I can see. Perhaps that's one of the reasons it's growing by leaps-and-bounds, as covered in my recent article, Look Out Wikipedia, Here Comes Yahoo Answers!

Want to comment? Come join:

• Why Shouldn't Google Answers Let People Ask Questions About Google?, Yahoo Answers
• Google Answers: Question Everything But Google, Search Engine Watch Forums

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:15 AM | Permalink

June 20, 2006

Google Pulls Question About Google From Google Answers

Peter Da Vanzo reports on an individual who posted a question on Google Answers that was removed by Google. The question was, "What percentage of Google searches are contextual?" Specifically, the person wanted to know what percentage of Google searches give back results based on the content of a page someone is reading.

You can see the thread title in the cache or via this image capture, at this moment in time, where the poster was willing to pay $20 for the answer. A Google editor removed the question, stating:

Hello hallsteve11-ga,

Thank you for your question ID 739118, titled "Percentage of Google searches that are "contextual"." We've removed your question because you can find the answer on our main site, free of charge. All publicly available information about Google is available at: http://www.google.com/about.html.

For additional questions about Google, please visit: http://www.google.com/support

Thank you for your interest in Google Answers. Please visit us again.

Sincerely,

The Google Answers Team

Is this a case of Google censoring a question that they don't feel comfortable being answered?

Postscript From Danny: I don't think there's anything "uncomfortable" about the question, especially since Google doesn't really contextually create search results anywhere. It does put ads on pages that are based by analyzing the content/context of those pages -- but those ads are not searches. Still, pulling the question makes no sense. If someone wants to ask a question on the service, let them answer it. And pointing at the Google About page doesn't answer the question at all!

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:39 AM | Permalink

June 8, 2006

Yahoo Answers Coming After Wikipedia's Crown?

Look Out Wikipedia, Here Comes Yahoo Answers! from me in SearchDay today looks at new stats that fuel the notion that Yahoo Answers is perhaps becoming a social interacting phenomenon like YouTube or MySpace. As a reference resource, it has come from nowhere to be the third most popular site, just one behind Wikipedia (though percentagewise, it's further back. The longer version of the story for Search Engine Watch members goes into more depth about how Yahoo is building traffic for Yahoo Answers plus how search marketers can appropriately tap into the area. Click here to learn more about becoming a member

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:07 PM | Permalink

May 15, 2006

Yahoo Answers Hits 10 Million Mark; Answers Creeping Into Regular Search Results

Yahoo patted themselves on the back for reaching the 10 million answers posted mark on Yahoo Answers. Part of that announcement was the fact that Yahoo Answers are appearing both organically and through vertical means into the search results.

As SEO Book also points out a search on best dog for apartment will show few results from Yahoo Answers in the organic listings. Also a search on harley davidson will show a Yahoo Shortcut at the bottom of the results page to Yahoo Answers.

The vertical results are nice, but will webmasters begin to complain that Yahoo has a bias towards their own content in the organic results?

Postscript From Danny: 10 million is an impressive number, especially compared to the only 1.2 million (1,183,320) bookmarked pages in the slightly older My Web service that Yahoo also runs. That social search service feels like it is faltering, so perhaps question answering will be how Yahoo gets people involved.

Meanwhile, how's Google Answers doing? I've never seen a total number of questions reported. Poking at it, a search for the and a both give 129,373 matches while -djjdjjdjkkdd (a word not in Google Answers, so looking for answers without that word should give a total count) gives 142,005 matches. So if you trust the counts, Google Answers has dealt with only a fraction of what Yahoo has already covered -- and more than half of those unanswered. That's if you trust the counts. I don't.

Plus, counts don't necessarily mean answers. For example, look at this "question" on Yahoo Answers: "What Is Your Favorite Punk Rock Band." It's more a discussion that getting a particular question answered. Still, there are definitely lots of questions being answered elsewhere on the service, and kudos to it for hitting this milestone.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:41 AM | Permalink

May 8, 2006

Windows Live QnA In Action

The MSN Search Blog mentions the new Windows Live QnA service and also has a link to the MSN Spaces QnA blog that has details with screen shots of the new offering. So if you are interesting in taking a look at Microsoft's answer to Google Answers and Yahoo Answers, visit the QnA blog. We had a short brief on this new service on Friday.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:13 AM | Permalink

May 5, 2006

Windows Live QnA Beta - Microsoft's Answer To Google & Yahoo Answers

ResourceShelf reports on a new invite only beta service by Microsoft named Windows Live QnA. The program is similar to Google Answers and Yahoo Answers. The service is described as "Windows Live QnA Beta lets you ask any question and get the 411 from people who have the answers you're looking for. Everybody's an expert on something--including you--so tap into that collective brain power and contribute your own." If you want to sign up for the beta, go here and enter your hotmail address in the form - this is only open to US based users.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:33 AM | Permalink

April 14, 2006

MSN Windows Live Search Getting Answers Service; May Partner Or Acquire Eurekster

Via Threadwatch, Microsoft Gets Social from BusinessWeek has news that Microsoft may be buying or partnering with Eurekster to bring social search features to its MSN Window Live Search service. An question answering service is also coming.

What's MSN Windows Live Search, by the way? Since Microsoft doesn't seem to know if we're supposed to use Windows Live Search (launched last month) or MSN Search (launched in 1998), MSN Windows Live Search is my name for covering both bases at once. Personally, I like how it preserves the MSN brand while adding yet another word to the search service's name. It rolls off the tongue. I'm going to go MSNWindowsLiveSearch someone or something right now.

BusinessWeek confuses the forthcoming Q&A tool with social search. Those are two completely different types of search features/services, of which Q&A is the least important. In fact, it just reeks of another "me too" move that's not going to budge MSN Windows Live Search's usage among searchers.

I mean, LookSmart Live never took off after being launched in 1999. Neither did Ask's Answer Point, which came out in 2000. Google Answers, which was kicked off in 2002 the same week Answer Point closed only generated 0.01 percent of Google visits in November. Yahoo Answers was launched only in December, so perhaps it will grow. But it probably won't. Wondir is still going, but it's hardly had the growth and notice of some social sites like YouTube.

Real social/personalized search coming to MSNWLS is much more important, because it really is something I expect will take us into that next generational jump. Eurekster certainly has plenty of experience in the space, having ushered in the current round of social search attention since it launched back in 2004.

Here are some key stories from me on social and personalized search, if you really want to come up to speed on changes:

• Direct Hit Debuts Personalized Search  
• Eurekster Launches Personalized Social Search  
• Search Personalization: A Marketer's Perspective  
• Google Relaunches Personal Search - This Time, It Really Is Personal  
• Yahoo My Web: An eBay For Knowledge

FYI, this will be MSN's second time around with a social search feature. In 1999, they carried Direct Hit results, which was a rudimentary form of social search based on tracking aggregate clicks. Direct Hit results were dropped sometime before 2002.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:10 AM | Permalink

February 8, 2006

Answers.com Adds New Ready Reference Content to Database

It's great to see that Answers.com, a "ready reference" service with a growing database of factual information from a wide variety of sources continues to add new content and sources to their database on a very regular basis. Several new "answer" sources have already been added this month. They include:

+ Pop Artists via AMG Pop Artist Bios (e.g. Stevie Wonder, Tori Amos, Pearl Jam...)

Look for bios and discographies. AMG stands for All Music Guide a wonderful reference tool and a favorite site of mine. Btw, AllMusic now contain info on classical music and performers. More about what the AllMusic site itself offers here.

+ Fast Facts - Interesting trivia (e.g. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley...)

+ Western Birds - Souurce: Peterson Field guide to Western birds (e.g. bar-tailed godwit, yellow-headed parrot, ringed-turtle dove...)

+ Rocks and Minerals - Source: Peterson Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals (e.g. gold, opal, sulfur...)

+ Botanical Glossary: - Source: Glossary for Taylor's Guide to Annuals (e.g. lateral bud, two-lipped, ray flower...)

Posted by Gary Price at 2:12 PM | Permalink

January 29, 2006

AOL's "(Quick) Answer" Feature On Web Results Pages

Although we've blogged many times about search engines becoming answer engines for some types of queries with a variety of tools and services including Google "Q&A", MSN "Instant Answers", Ask Jeeves "Smart Answers", and Yahoo Wikipedia shortcuts, we haven't mentioned AOL's (quick) answer feature found at the top of some web results pages.

An AOL (quick) answer should not be confused with AOL "Snapshot" that provides facts, stats, links, etc. to related content from other web sites (including Time Warner properties) that have been assembled by human editors. Here's an example of an AOL Snapshot.

A (quick) answer comes from material autonomously mined from open web sources like Wikipedia, CIA World Factbook, IMDB, and other sites delivered at the very top of a web results page.

Examples: + President of Harvard University + Capital of France + Director of Spiderman

(quick) answer is powered by technology from Teragram based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their website offers info on the specific technology that AOL users to power (quick) answer (called Direct Answer) along info about other categorization and taxonomy technology they market.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:57 PM | Permalink

January 26, 2006

askSam Now Offering Searchable Databases (Free) Containing U.S. Copyright Law, The DMCA, and Every State of the Union Address Back to 1790

On what is a growing number of occasions we've beeb highlighting the good and very useful work that Phil Schnyder and his team at askSam are doing by are providing free searchable and browsable (online or download and use offline) to classic books, government and legal documents, speeches, and more utilizing askSam database software.

Today, we've learned that ask Sam has just released three new databases (what they call eBooks) that might be of interest to some of you, especially those with an interest in copyright issues.

First, U.S. Copyright Law (title 17 of the US Code) "Search and analyze the full text of the Copyright Law of the United States of America & related laws contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of 'original works of authorship,' including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works."

Second, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) "Search and analyze the full text of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Passed in 1998, the DMCA is a bill designed to bring the Copyright Law up to date with digital media."

Third, State of the Union Addresses of the American Presidents "Search and analyze the full-text of all State of the Union Addresses from 1790-2005."

A complete and rapidly expanding list of ask Sam book, all free, can be found here.

Btw, to view offline you'll need a free copy of the askSam reader.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:13 PM | Permalink

January 10, 2006

Ready Reference Databases: AcronymFinder Adds New Search Features

AcronymFinder.com one of the most well-known human-edited acronym and abbreviation databases on the open web has introduced a few new search features that make the service potentially more useful to researchers. What's new is explained in detail on the Acronym Blog.

In a nutshell: + New "Rank" Section on Results Pages "Rank is our measure of the relative "commonness", "popularity" or "relevance" of the meaning of an acronym... Results are sorted by decreasing rank, which means the most commonly used meanings will be listed first. " An alphabetical sort is also available.

+ Categories Neat! "The table of search results now has tabs at the top showing the categories and how many definitions we have in each category. The default search shows all definitions. Click on the text in a category to show only the definitions from that category using the default rank order, as above...The category tabs also work in both acronym and reverse lookup searches."

+ Search within these results In the upper right of the table of results you'll see a link for "Search within these results". Searching within results can be done only if you know one of the words in the meaning. Type in that word (or a portion of the word), and press Enter or the Go button and your results will be based on the acronym you first typed in, but only acronyms with meanings containing the word or word fragment you typed in. The blog post also has an example search and info about a shortcut to access this feature.

AcronymFinder also powers the "acronym or abbreviation" (only) search box on Ask Jeeves.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:03 PM | Permalink

Answers.com Adds More Research Tools to Database

Answers.com continues to add more research tools to their service. Here's a look at a few new features.

• Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners
• A Collection (searchable) of International Word Origins
• Geological Glossary
• Database of American Author Biographies

Posted by Gary Price at 11:49 AM | Permalink

December 20, 2005

Answers.com's New "Find As You Type" Feature

We see to be talking about UI tests at Google all of the time but how about a test from Answers.com? From what I've heard, most people should now be seeing a "preferences" link that's been added to their home page. So what, what's the big deal. Actually, it's not only this new link but more importantly the introduction of a new feature that I'm happy to see. It has the potential to save the typical user some time and effort with little to no learning curve.

In case you can't see it yet, here's what I'm noticing: Cap 1: Answers.com Home Page Note the preferences link, upper-right corner. Cap 2: Answers.com Preferences Page (New)

Ok, now head to the Answers.com search box. Begin entering letters into the search box. As you type, you'll notice a dropdown box that dynamically produces the titles of various entries in the Answers.com database even before you click the search button.

If one of these entries is what you're looking for, simply highlight and go directly to the entry. It's another example of a searcher identifying potential results even before they have to begin browsing a web search results page. If a user doesn't find the service useful (it's turned "on" by default) they can turn it off via the preferences page.

If this idea of getting results before clicking the search button looks and sounds familiar, it should. It's a growing trend that I've been blogging about for some time.

In September, I authored this SearchDay article about a new service called LookAhead that any webmaster can license and use on their site. Btw, the LookAhead web site has numerous demos of this technology in action.

The article also includes several of the reasons why I believe that what Answers.com is doing and what LookAhead offers any webmaster can be so useful to both the searcher and the webmaster.

Finally, Answers.com is not the first to offer this type of feature. Here are a few others that are worth a look: + SurfWax News Accumulator + WikiWax (Wikipedia fans make sure to check this out) + AOL Pinpoint Shopping + AOL Pinpoint Travel

Postscript: Word from Answers.com that the test is now over (that was quick) and everyone should now have the option to use the ""Find As You Type" feature.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:27 PM | Permalink

Don't Overlook Human Edited Directories

Using a search engine to find information on the web is virtually reflexive for most of us these days. We tend to forget that search engines aren't always the best information finding tool. Indeed, some of the oldest human-edited directories are still around today, and often help turn up information we might not easily surface otherwise. Guest writer Mary Ellen Bates revisits two of the best web directories in today's SearchDay article, A Pair of Web Pathfinding Gems.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:43 PM | Permalink

December 19, 2005

Specialty Databases (Verticals) The Focus Of A Wall Street Journal Article

A few weekends ago Wall Street Journal reporter, Kevin Delaney, gave me a call asking for a few ideas, thoughts, and suggestions about useful specialized databases (aka verticals) that would be of interest to WSJ readers.

Today, the article was published and it's titled, "Beyond Google." You'll find it linked here. However, at least for the moment, Kevin's story is only available to WSJ subscribers.

A couple of quick comments and notes:

1) Thanks Kevin for asking for my suggestions and for the quote. You should know that for each database suggested and included in the final article, 40-50 more could have been included and received a well-deserved mention. I had to limit my picks for obvious reasons. Of course, Kevin spoke to others and also included their suggestions.

2) The "Beyond Google" headline is great. The word Google has a way of drawing peoples attention and the title of the headline is often the title of presentations I give. Why? A presentation titled, "Learn about Specialty Databases" does not pack in the crowds. Tossing the word Google into the title, does.

Specialty tools do not replace general purpose large web engines like Google, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, Gigablast, Exalead, and others. A web researcher should have a good working knowledge of both general databases and specialty tools. Plus, in terms of some of my presentations, the word "Google" gets the crowd in the door and then I have time to not only talk about Google (many don't have any idea of what it can offer) but also have time to talk about the great useful stuff being developed by AJ, Yahoo, and elsewhere. So in reality it's a two pronged presensation. As I posted on Friday, it's clear that many people who use these and other tools have little to no idea of how these services work and what they offer.

+ General web engines (The full landscape, how to take full advantage of some of their services, creating better queries). These days it can also include time letting the audience know about verticals that these companies also provide like Yahoo Audio Search.

+ Specialized databases (verticals) the power and often time saving capabilities they offer. The challenge for many is just knowing about them.

3) If you read the blog on a regular basis, you'll likely notice that Kevin used several suggestions that I've written about on our site. Cool!

4) I was especially pleased to see the WSJ article mention the wonderful RegLightGreen bibliographic database and NetLibrary, available for free from many libraries that offers the full text of thousands of books. Remember, as I wrote in this guest column for BetaNews, public, university, and many other types of libraries offer FREE, 24x7x365, access from any web computer (no need to go to the library) to a full range of specialized databases that often offer content not found in web engines (full text journals, newspapers, magazines, reference books, etc.) OR packaged in such a way to add extra value to the data. Plus, these databases tend to offer search capabilities not found from general web engines. Every library offers different service and databases. The easiest to learn what your library offers is to either look at their web site or make a quick call.

Postscript: I'm happy to report that at least for the moment, it's the most popular story on the WSJ site today. Yes, I think the public is beginning to understand the value of specialized tools.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:27 PM | Permalink

December 10, 2005

Web Search History: Before Google Answers and Yahoo Answers There Was "Answer Point" From Ask Jeeves

How about some web search industry history? Long before two major search engines, Google and Yahoo offered Google Answers and Yahoo Answers, their human powered question answering services and/or communities, another major engine offered something very similar. It was called Answer Point and came from Ask Jeeves. It existed (it's long gone) around 1999-2000. This page (via the Wayback Machine) has it looking similar to what we see today from others.

Answer Point appears to have been a free service to ask questions and with the help of other people have them answered. The service had its own logo and used the slogan: "The Ask Jeeves Answer Point is the place where you can ask and answer questions. Have a question? Post it! Know the answer? Post it!"

Subcategories were moderated.

The last archived version of the site I could find in Wayback was from late 2001. Answer Point also allowed users to register to become Answer Point "enthusiasts" and receive points and rankings for how many times they posted. Something we recently said is not the best idea. You could even personalize with "My Answer Point."

Before I go any further, I'm well aware of other question answering services involving humans. This post is not to recollect about all of them. My point here was just a bit of web history and to note that another large web search company was doing something similar years ago.

I've sent a note to Jim Lanzone, Senior Vice President of Search Properties at AJ, and asked if he could provide a bit more background about the service itself. What kind of usage (not much would be the answer I would bet on) did AP receive? Why and when was the plug pulled? If Jim, sends a note back, I'll add it as a postscript.

I would like to encourage you to take a look (if you haven't already) at my post about "other" question answering services that discusses what libraries of all types offer "virtually" in terms of question answering without having to visit the library itself. In many cases we're talking 24x7 access.

Finally, a point I failed to make in that article was the recent launch of a nationwide "virtual reference service" in the UK called "Enquire."

More about it here. Click the Enquire button. Enquire is part of The People's Network. Btw, Australia also has a national virtutal reference service named Ask Us. Again, more about these services and others in my other post. Postscipt: Well, it seems the Jim Lanzone from Ask Jeeves reads his email on the weekend. What follows are his comments about Answer Point.

Ask Jeeves' AnswerPoint operated from early 2000 through May '02. AnswerPoint wasn't a failure, nor a smashing success. At that point in Ask's turnaround we simply had to make choices, so we shut AnswerPoint down (among other things) to focus our energy on things like Teoma and Smart Answers. The user base of AnswerPoint was actually pretty upset about it: they were a very small, but very loyal group, which made it a difficult decision for us. Ironically, as I recall, Google Answers launched the same week that we shut down AnswerPoint. I commend Yahoo for joining sites like Wondir in trying the free model again. Beyond the obvious issues like spam, I can share a few challenges with community-driven question-answering that we experienced. First, as a free service, there was little incentive for people to answer other people's questions. I think the dynamic of question-answering is/was different than other user-generated content. With user reviews, like those found on Amazon, TripAdvisor or Citysearch, people are playing "critic", a long-standing model from newspapers and magazines. With Wikipedia, participants are creating specialized content, in one centralized location, for the masses to consume. With De.icio.us and Flickr, tagged items are made public, but the initial motive is borne at least somewhat from self-interest: organization of bookmarks and photos. With question-answering, on the other hand, it takes a true good samaritan to spend the time to provide answers to one-off questions for people you don't know. (And an even better samaritan to perform this good deed repeatedly, over time, for free.) Meanwhile, if you do it for ego, your answers get lost in the system pretty quickly. So neither motive was that compelling. We observed that only a small group of "experts" took the time to answer questions for others. Secondly, if not enough people provide answers, then you can't answer enough questions. This is a problem when search has such a long tail of queries, as we showed at Web 2.0. Most searches are unique. This is why search engines are so useful, even though relevance is far from perfect: we can cast a very broad net. The notion of waiting for an answer is also in conflict with one of the biggest user needs in search: speed. Most things that people search for are things they want an answer to, or a solution for, almost immediately. In theory people will put in more effort to get a better answer, but in practice they seldom do. For example, 30% of users surveyed say they want advanced search, but only 1% of them ever use it. The same thing applied to AnswerPoint. It was usually just faster and easier for people to search normally, iterating on their searches, than to submit a question to the community and wait for an answer. Lastly, there's the reason we created Smart Answers in the first place: people like to search from one box. Getting them to head to a different part of our site for results is always an uphill battle for any engine. It's true that there are subjective answers out there that search engines are not (yet) able to respond to accurately. And sites Yahoo's own Groups product, started by our own Mark Fletcher, have proven that communities can generate valuable information in search. It will be interesting to see if and how community-based "answers" search can evolve to plug the gaps that exist.

Note: In many situations the "good samaritan" Lanzone writes about might be the subject expert (via an AskA service or a librarian (via a virtual reference service).

Postscript 2 (from Danny): Along the same lines as Ask Jeeves, LookSmart Live was an online answer service that was born in 1999 but quietly died. More about the service from when it launched is here, LookSmart Live Looks-Up Answers.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:09 PM | Permalink

December 7, 2005

Other Q&A Services, Most Available For Free!

The new Yahoo Answers joins a long list of other answer-providing services. Here's a recap of some prominent services that offer online Q&A. Like all answers found on the web or really anywhere, it's important to use your critical info skills and take a step back and look at where the answer is coming from, it's scope, currency, the authortity of the source, etc.

Wondir.com Yahoo Answers reminds me IN MANY WAYS of a web based Q&A community that has been online and growing for several years called Wondir.com (Note: I am listed as a member of the Wondir Board of Advisors) but have had little involvement for a few years.

Like at Yahoo Answers, questions come from users all over the web and are organized into categories and searchable. RSS feeds are available and a scrolling ticker relays the latest asked questions, and personalization is available from MyWondir. The service officially launched in April and recently was acquired by the Revolution Health Group. More about What's New at Wondir, here. SearchDay also had a story about Wondir in 2002. This blog post has more about Wondir news along with a link to an interview I did with Wondir co-founder, Dr. Matt Koll. When the service officially launched this year it received coverage in several publications including The Washington Post, The Daily Record, Serchblog.

Your Local, University, or Company Library A large movement in the library world in the past few years is know as "virtual reference." Yes, the world of the library and the professional librarian extend beyond the four walls of the library building. In many cases these services are available from libraries large and small and allow you to chat live with a librarian in many cases 24x7 (trained in research) who also have access to many more tools (books and databases that can found on the web). I've blogged about virtual reference before and even pointed out that in some areas like the State of Colorado and the entire country of Australia, these services are available. Here's just one a quick example. A resident of San Francisco or better said, someone with access to a San Francisco library card, can go online and chat in by phone, email and/or IM. You can learn more about virtual reference here. Now, these pros can help you come up with a better search or suggest you use a database specifically designed for the info need you have. In addition to books, SF PL librarians can clue you into this massive collection of remotely accessible set of databases that contain the full text of articles, books, and much more. It's all free.

Update: A nationwide virtual reference service just launched in the UK called Enquire. More about it here. Click the Enquire button. It's part of The People's Network.

Btw, none of these virtual reference have nothing to do with the full text databases available from home or office FOR PERSONAL USE with just a library card for many libraries. For more on this, check this guest column I wrote for BetaNews.

AskA Services These are databases or other types of service where subject experts will answer your questions on a variety of topics. I think you'll be amazed at what's available.

Google Answers Google Answers is a bit different than Yahoo Answers in two main ways. First, it's fee-based where you tell a "qualified" Google researcher how much you're willing to pay for an answer. Additionally, once your query is posted, "Your question will also be publicly viewable on the Google Answers website so other registered users can add their insights and share the benefit of the research."

Postscript: As I noted yesterday, Answers.com and The New York Public Library have just announced a new service that will include a virtual reference/question answering element to help students with homework.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:04 PM | Permalink

The Birth of Yahoo Answers

Now out in beta is Yahoo Answers, Yahoo's new social networking/online community/question answering service. The service allows any registered Yahoo user to ask just about any question and hopefully get an answer from another member of the question answering community. Access to Yahoo Answers is free.

Yahoo Answers appears to be definite extension of what Yahoo's Senior Vice President, Search and Marketplace, Jeff Weiner, calls FUSE (Find, Use, Share, Expand) and Yahoo's numerous efforts into online community building with services like Web 2.0.

In my conversation with Ofer Shaked, Director of Engineering for Yahoo Search, I got the impression that this is a true beta with many of the details to be worked out as the service rolls out.

Shaked told me that Yahoo Answers is built to on the company's social search technology with a focus on answering day to day questions of a subjunctive nature (Where can I buy..., What's a good show to see..., etc.) and organizing them into a more structured info base with the use of several features including categories. Its motto is: Ask--Answer--Discover.

Shaked also said in testing "day to day" types of questions have been most popular. Yahoo strives for this to be a self policing community. By the way, at launch, questions can only be asked and answered in English but the company said to look for more language options in 2006.

At the moment Yahoo Answers offers 23 top-level categories like:

* Auto & Transportation * Business & Finance * Computers & Internet * Consumer Electronics * Dining * Education & Reference * Food & Wine * Health & Beauty * Local Businesses * Love & Romance * News & Events * Politics & Government * Pregnancy & Parenting * Science & Math * Society & Culture * Travel

and then sub-categories in each group. At this point, users determine into which category their question goes into. During the beta period questions can only be assigned to a single category. This might be limiting for some users. Shaked added that categories and sub-categories are not set in stone and user tagging might also come into play down the line.

One category I noticed that was currently not available was legal. You've got to wonder if that opens up many issues, but I would think health info would also.

Let's Get Some Points!

Yahoo Answers uses a point and level system to reward participants:

To encourage participation and reward great answers, Yahoo! Answers has a system of points and levels. The number of points you get depends on the specific action you take. The points table below summarizes the point values for different actions. While you can't use points to buy or redeem anything, they do allow everyone to recognize how active and helpful you've been. (And they give you another excuse to brag to your friends.)

As is often the case, Greg Linden makes an excellent point on his blog about the new service. He writes:

Looking at the Yahoo Answers point system, it appears to me that there is an incentive to answer as many questions as possible as quickly as possible without worrying about accuracy. I think that's going to need some tuning.

Greg, I couldn't have said it any better myself. Is this a game (who can get the most points?, who can challenge for the lead?) or a real service to answer questions with accurate, current, and authoritative answers from quality sources? The bragging should come from sharing accurate info, not by accumulating points.

Let's Ask A Question

Asking a question is easy. The hard part is judging the quality of the answer and answerer, but isn't that always the case? Answers are not reviewed by a single source or sources but by members of the community.

First, enter your question into the box found on the top-left of the page. At this point, your query cannot consist of more than 150 characters but there is room for expansion of the question later on. Unfortunately, when I tested the system earlier this week, many of the links were not working for me to proceed.

Questions themselves are grouped into the following categories:

• Open Question that are accepting answers
• Resolved Questions
• Vote on Undecided Questions

In this situation the users can vote on the "best" answer.

There also time limits on how long a question can go unanswered or voted on, though Yahoo says the time limits at this point are still being determined.

Users are allowed to share their sources. I hope that many people complete this part of the page. I wonder what would happen if we search string after search string come from the Google database? Also, I've noticed this elsewhere how many people will get an answer that reads, "go check your library or ask a librarian."

All questions and question authors have a report abuse link located directly below the question or the authors name. It will be interesting to see how active Yahoo is in managing abuse especially if the service grows large in popularity.

In terms of what might best be called "adult questions," Shaked said Yahoo's search technology will recognize basic abuse patterns and has plans to incorporate more abuse mitigation technology for abusive terms into the system.

Shaked told me that they are not enforcing anything at the moment and wants to see how things play out on the service. The service does have a set of user guidelines, so it's possible for "answers" to be removed under certain situations. Users are responsible for their own posts and that includes posting material in-copyright. The question is how actively Yahoo enforce policies surrounding these an related issues.

Searching The Answerbase

Both a simple search box and some advanced features are available for asked and answered questions. Yahoo Answers will be promoted on Yahoo Web Results pages. For example, a user might see a link to seek an answer to their info need on Yahoo Answers.

Unfortunately, the knowledgebase will not be maintained. According to Yahoo, "The knowledgebase is maintained in such a way that Yahoo! removes items that do not follow guidelines." Again, only usage and time will show what this precisely means.

I think an unmaintained knowledgebase (assuming it grows large) could turn into an issue for Yahoo in the long run if proper warnings and disclaimers are not clearly marked and dates (when the question was answered) are provided.

For example, says someone asks who the CEO of Foo Corporation  is and a correct answer is given. A year later, after a new CEO is in place, will some users simply search the knowledgebase and not realize that the info might be incorrect?

I think keeping the knowledgebase current for certain types of factual queries is important or at the least for answers to cross references to other, new questions or research tools that might be more up to date.

RSS & Advertising

New answers to questions can be delivered via RSS, questions can be emailed with one click, and a watch list is also available for each user.

What about ads? During my chat with Shaked, he was rather reserved about the future of advertising on Yahoo Answers pages.

When I tested, no ads were visible, but Shaked did mention that in the future answerers with strong reputations (feedback, etc) could be able to benefit from use of the Yahoo Publishers Network on certain pages. Again, this is just talk and it will be interesting to see if people try to game the system for YPN access.

Final Thoughts

One day or even one month test to judge the popularity and usefulness of Yahoo Answers is not enough. It will take some time.

Like I said about the launch of Google Base the other week, I think it will be very illuminating to take a look at Yahoo Answers in a few months to see how the community has developed and also functioning on policing itself to remove spam, bad info, etc. Yahoo will need to be very vigilant to monitor:

• Spam
• Scams
• Uses as a marketing tool (working in plugs for various products into answers).
• Infomercials of a different sort.
• Members who consistently cause problems

In other words, can the Yahoo Answers community of users police themselves or will Yahoo have to step in and be aggressive in their policing? Will Yahoo Answers simply be the next generation of an online bulletin board and online groups like Yahoo Groups which, unfortunately, deliver plenty of spam.

Also remember that no "answer" tool is perfect for every question. Different answer tools have their strengths and weaknesses. It's about using the correct one at the correct time. Sometimes a friend or colleague can provide you with the answers you need while sometimes you need someone to help you direct you to the correct tool to get the job done in a timely manner. Authority, currency, and related metrics still count!

Looking for some alternatives to consider? See my Other Q&A Services, Most Available For Free! post that's now up as a companion to this article, covering some other online Q&A services.

Postscript: If you're interested in taking the official Yahoo Answers product tour, here it is. Also, Yahoo has added a Yahoo Answers tab to the upper right corner of their clutter-free search.yahoo.com interface.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:01 PM | Permalink

The New York Public Library and Answers.com Announce New Homework Service

Lots of news coming from Answers.com in the past 24 hrs. First, the acquisition of Brainboost and this morning, word that Answers.com has teamed up with the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library to offer HomeworkNYC.org that "will assist" students with their homework.

While Answers.com is far the "perfect" research tool (what is really?), I'm happy to see them make the effort to work with the library community. They did the same type of thing in August when they launched a toolkit for all educators. While it's true Answers.com takes some data from Wikipedia (I pointed out an example of outdated Wikipedia data yesterday via Answers.com and I'm not going to get into another discussion of what seems to be this week's most popular topic. I have more in the post listed above) but Answers also licenses material from other sources and always seem to be adding new material.

Again, the biggest kudos to Answers.com goes for just making the effort and realizing the value of librarians.

The homeworkNYC.org site combines convenient links to helpful library resources with actual reference content that students can access in the main section of each page. "We are delighted to supply the topic library driving this central component, as another example of our ongoing effort to supply reliable, up-to-date content in a student-friendly, educational framework," said Jeff Cutler, Answers Corporation's Chief Revenue Officer.

Now, the biggest challenge is to get both students and their teachers to know about and use the service versus always typing 2.8 words into their favorite search tool. Services that aren't used tend to go away.

"homeworkNYC.org brings together a wide range of information in one easy-to-use site," said Susan Kent, Director and Chief Executive of The Branch Libraries, The New York Public Library. "It helps students pinpoint the answers they need, and because it has been developed by a team of librarians and educators, young researchers can trust that the information is thorough and reliable."

Postscript: Wouldn't it be wonderful if great directories of "quality" web resources like the LII, IPL, InfoMine, and the RDN also get involved and contributed materials? What about the same type of service let's say in LA or San Fran organized by InfoPeople and the LII? Just a thought.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:18 PM | Permalink

December 6, 2005

Answers.com Buys "Answer Extraction" Engine Brainboost for $4 Million in Cash and Some Shares of Restricted Stock

Word from Answers.com that they've acquired an "answer extraction" database that utilizes NLP (natural language processing), Brainboost.com for $4 million in cash and 439,000 shares of restricted stock.

The developer of Brainboost, Mr. Assaf Rozenblatt, has joined the Answers.com team as Director of Natural Language Research. My experiences with Brainboost over the years have been mediocre at best. At this point answers to questions (What is...? How many...? Who are?) are derived from open web content that doesn't always give a quality factual answer. Does a teacher want a student citing, http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/realname.html ? Of course, this is new technology, and something we'll likely to be seeing more in the future. So, Answers.com's investment is likely a good business move. In many ways, it's similar to the ZoomInfo tech we blogged about earlier today.

Brainboost (www.brainboost.com) works by scouring digital content and extracting candidate answers to natural language queries. It then ranks those candidate answers heuristically and displays the highest-confidence results in simple English form. Answers.com will apply Brainboost's answer extraction techniques not only to the Web at large, as implemented currently, but to Answers.com's own growing content library of attributable reference sources.

The last sentence can only be a good thing for Brainboost with the implementation of Answers.com material that does go well beyond Wikipedia data. Plus, having Answer's resources both human and financial can only help.

Again, it's the librarian in me talking here but it's one thing to get an answer (something) but it's also crucial where (the source) of that answer. Sometimes the best answer (currency, scope, authority) doesn't come from open web. Of course, Brainboost can help the searcher get to an autoritative source but the question is will the person take the next step.

Ads on results pages are provided by Google.

Since you were likely wondering what type of answers you can find. Here are a few sample questions that came to mind in the past five minutes (literally), remember results may vary: + Who owned the Chicago Cubs in the 1960's...No mention of Phillip K. Wrigley (yes, the gum guy). + Who are the members of Coldplay?...No mention of Chris Martin and the rest of the guys. + What does WGN (the TV and radio station) stand for? Correct? World's Greatest Newspaper + Where was Carl Bernstein born (Woodward and Bernstein)? Date yes, location no. + When is Labor Day in 2006? No dates given. + What is Boomer Esiason's real name? No answer + What does the luggage or baggage tag MSY stand for? No answer. Btw, the correct answer is New Orleans. + Who is the founder of the Wikipedia? No answer. Sorry Jimmy. + What is the name of the stadium where the Washington Wizards play? No go. + What are the names all six children on the brady bunch? No go + Who is the Prime Minister of Canada? Nope. No mention of Paul Martin. + What is the nickname of Texas Christian University? Nope. Answer, Horned Frogs.

However, my friend Tara from ResearchBuzz had better luck. Back in March, she had some positive comments about the serivce.

Postscript: Ask Jeeves in July launched Web Answers that mines or extracts the open web for "answers" in real-time. This is not to be confused with Ask's Smart Answer program which takes content from structured sources. More about web answers in this post (2nd half). Like BrainBoost, caveat emptor with this type of service. Here is a question (Where is Diego Garcia) answered by a AJ Web Answer.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:13 PM | Permalink

Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Interviewed on NPR

One of the most popular topics in the mainstream press the few days has been the Wikipedia. What it is, how it works, etc. You can read where this most recent round of conversation began in Danny's post from the earlier this month. While other "controversies" have taken place in the past, this is the first one to get wide mainstream press coverage. As Danny points out I also have plans to chat with Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, soon. In the mean time, Wales has been all over the press with interviews. Today on National Public Radio he was interviewed on Talk of the Nation where among other things, he says Wikipedia's will now have to register to work in the system.

+ You can listen to Jimmy Wales and John Seigenthaler discuss the Wikipedia here.

Allow me to reiterate a point or two I made a few week's ago:

One of the positive things (in most cases) about the Wikipedia is how quickly pages can be updated with new updated/facts and changes can be made.

The issue in many cases is that anyone can download Wikipedia data on a specific day and are not required to update it.

In fact, I noticed last night that some sites don't even credit WikiP for the content. How does the inexperienced searcher or teacher know what he or she is looking at? Is the Wikipedia going to become a place for spammers, sploggers, marketers, and others to find free content to place ads on?

Also what about the long tail? I'm fortunate as it goes to have a Wikipedia entry. During the summer I added some data to it to see how long it would take to be removed from the main site since I'm fairly sure the entry for Gary Price is not one of the more popular ones. It took MANY weeks for the material to be edited out. However, a site (and a responsible one at that I like a lot (as noted in an another post) STILL has the incorrect data listed. No, I was not a roadie for AC/DC and Warrant and no I don't work as a stuntman in my spare time.

So, the issue in my mind is as the Wikipedia grows larger how can a user realize less popular entries that still have reference value to someone know they are as correct as possible both on the actual Wikipedia site and on its many mirrors? Should those who license Wikipedia data be required to upate on a regular basis or constantly crawl the main database?

Actually, the best advice I heard during today's interview came from Jimmy Wales himself. He said that Wikipedia and most other data on the web needs to be, "taken with a grain of salt." He's right. Are critical info skills being properly taught in K-12 education? The question is does the typical student who needs "something" understand this and furthermore do they know that other resources exist?

See Also: How much do you trust Wikipedia? A webliography. Readers weigh in on reports that Wikipedia entries are too easily tampered with to be reliable.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:42 PM | Permalink

December 3, 2005

New from from The Internet Movie Database: The Movie Keyword Analyzer, Fun!!!

When I not working either with Danny and Chris on the blog or my other sites, I'm a movie fan. In fact, my undergrad degree is in film studies. Of course, movie databases, well those are things I want to know about. It's no surprise then that I'm a big fan and regular user of The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) from Amazon.com. Some of you might remember that a few weeks ago I took an in-depth look at the many and powerful advanced search features the IMDb offers. It's amazing what this database can do.

So, when I learned of a new beta tool from the IMDb that could be found in the "fun" category, I immediately had to have a look. Then, things got very busy and I didn't have time to post on this new feature called MoKA (Movie Keywords Analyzer).

So, what is the MoKA (Movie Keywords Analyzer) all about? Well, it's hard to describe and a few minutes of just trying it out will make you an expert. Nevertheless, here's a brief overview.

IMDb presents a fun new tool for finding and discovering film and television titles within our large catalog. MoKA lets you find titles that have a particular keyword and then presents a tally of all keywords from the titles that matched your initial keyword set.

Often overlooked is the fact that all entries in the IMDB have been assigned keywords that describe the plot by for each tv/film entry by members of the IMDb community and editors. More about IMDb keywords and how they work here. Editors are also part of the process and review submissions. For example, the film The Matrix lists around 100 "plot keywords." Btw, links to "plot keywords" are found in the left column of "Plots & Quotes" section every entry. Here's another example, of keywords, this time for the tv show, The O.C..

Each keyword itself is hyperlinked into MoKA or you can access by going directly here.

Once on the MoKA page, simply enter a keyword to start the ball rolling OR simply click a keyword from each entry. You can also browse keywords.

+ I'll browse the list of keywords that begin with the letter M. Wow, that's quite a list. Each entry has how many times it appears in the database. + I'll select Magic.

+ Now you're taken to a page and see the relationship between the keyword magic and other keywords along with a list of films that have that keyword. Click other keywords and narrow and focus your list. Like many tag clouds the larger the type the more popular the keyword.

For example: Magic + "Based on Book" + King Arthur gave me this list of two films.

As I said in the beginning of this post, MoKA can be fun, interesting (especially for film buffs) and a great way to spend some spare time.

Finally, here are some games to play with MoKA as mentioned on the website.

* Start with a theme/keyword you like, then add new themes to narrow in on a title you'd like to see * Randomly click on a few keywords (but deliberately avoid seeing what you clicked on) and see if you can guess the common theme/keywords * What's the longest string of keywords that leads to a single title? * Find accurate, yet unexpected results * Find the oldest/newest/shortest/longest film for a particular set of keywords * Quiz your film buff friends by seeing if they can identify a title by just the keywords * Most importantly, help us improve IMDb by adding/updating/editing/deleting keywords from our database!

Postscript: I'll add that I immediately thought of Philipp Lenssen from Google Blogoscoped when I first learned of MoKA. Why? A regular reader of GB knows that PL often posts about film. Philipp also loves games and I wouldn't be surprised if he has some that utilize MoKA very soon.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:18 PM | Permalink

December 1, 2005

Complaints Over Wikipedia Accountability With Bios

Daniel Brandt's been upset over the accuracy and presence of a page about him at Wikipedia, and now John Seigenthaler, the former assistant to US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, is upset as well over his Wikipedia biography, venting his frustration in a USA Today article.

A false Wikipedia 'biography' has Seigenthaler sounding out his complaint, the 78 year old declaring that only one sentence in his bio was true. He managed to get Wikipedia to remove the material he objected to removed, though with Wikipedia's community editing system, I don't see anything that prevents that from coming back.

It's also somewhat confusing that if only one sentence was accurate -- and the objectionable material was removed -- why is there still a fairly lengthy bio on him at Wikipedia?

Overall, the concerns are still well taken. There's no guarantee of accuracy at Wikipedia, though that's true of any publication. The difference is that Seigenthaler illustrates how difficult it was for him to know who should be accountable. That's not the case with more traditional reference resources.

Moving on to Brandt, he also raised the difficulty in a post at Google Blogoscoped of knowing who was responsible over creation and changes to his own bio. Lots of comments followed his article. This Google Blogoscoped post from the end of October outlines Brandt's original objection.

Brandt -- most known for creating the Google Watch protest site -- outlines his concerns about Wikipedia more directly at his new Wikipedia Watch site.

But the above situations illustrate the real concerns people might have over the accuracy of what's said about them and the inability to get accountability when needed. Brandt, unlike Seigenthaler, questions whether there is a privacy violation in having a bio at all or with some of the material in it:

The privacy issues interest me even more than the libel issue. Unfortunately, the laws on privacy are less clear, and discussions on privacy will not be as focused. In Florida, where Wikipedia is located, there is an invasion of privacy statute that might apply in this case, even assuming that everything in the article is true. At issue would be the public disclosure of truthful private information that a reasonable person would find objectionable. Would a reasonable person find Wikipedia's mention of facts about my 1960s activism objectionable? Not at the moment, hopefully, and yet it wouldn't take much for this situation to change. Another act of terrorism on U.S. soil, followed by a stronger version of the U.S. Patriot Act, and "reasonable" people might feel that I should, once again, be watched by the FBI, CIA, and local police the way I was in the 1960s. Does Wikipedia consider issues such as this? Of course not ? information wants to be free, and nothing must stand in its way.

Brandt in particular is probably on weaker ground here. He's been widely cited on Google issues in many popular press articles. He is a public figure.

Brandt's also had no problem declaring that others have no rights to privacy based on whatever criteria he determines, as I covered in my article about his nomination of Google for a Big Brother award:

I found it ironic that Brandt's site, which champions privacy, named the actual engineer who formerly worked for the NSA. Did Brandt see any privacy issues in doing that? No.

"Do you know of others at Google with security clearances? If so, send me their names and I'll be sure to mention them as well," Brandt said, noting that the engineer's resume had been on the web for years. "Agents of powerful, secret organizations have no right to privacy, in my opinion. I've been in favor of naming CIA officers for 30 years now. The NSA is no different," he said.

So a privacy violation? Not in my book. But I have a huge, huge degree of sympathy over the lack of accountability and control concerns that he and Seigenthaler complain about. That's likely to be a problem that will grow for Wikipedia, unless they come up with some controls.

Gary's still planning either a podcast or a written interview with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, as he's written before, so expect some comment from him on the situation to come in the blog.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:21 AM | Permalink

November 30, 2005

Answers.com Now Embedded into Firefox 1.5 Search Toolbar

A quick note from Answers.com that a link to this ready-reference database is now embedded directly and automatically into the new Firefox 1.5 search toolbar. Additionally, Firefox 1.5 users can download a plug-in and have an option to search highlighted text with Answers.com via a right-click. The agreement calls for an ad-revenue split between Answers and Mozilla on Answers traffic originating from the Firefox search toolbar.

Along with these new features, Answers.com added the following content to their database today:

+ Webster's 1913 Dictionary - dictionary edited by Patrick J. Cassidy + Tips Resource Center - guidelines to help you find what you're looking for on Answers.com + Antonyms - dictionary of antonyms

Posted by Gary Price at 4:38 PM | Permalink

November 29, 2005

Gollum and Other Wikipedia Search Tools

News.com reports about a new "Wikipedia Browser" named Gollum that comes from German web developer, Harald Hanek.

In my opinion the interface of Wikipedia is too overloaded and confusing," Hanek says on the Gollum site. "So let's get an easy to use interface."

A dowloadable beta is coming soon according to the web site but at the moment the web interface appears very easy to use. Simply select a language for the pull-down menu (19 languages are listed) and the select which version of Wikipedia you want to use (English, French, German, etc.). Next, click the Gollum interface and a "browser" window opens. Unfortunately, when I tested Gollum a few minutes ago, I kept running into an error messages. I'll have to try later.

The article goes on to mention that the Wikipedia Foundation is not involved in any way with Gollum's development.

Want more Wikipedia tools? Here are two:

+ Answers.com Creates One-Click Answers Tool for Wikipedia Content This new service (coming soon) was formed in a partnership between Answers.com and the Wikipedia Foundation.

+ Wikipedia Plus Dynamic Search Term Suggestions = WikiWax "Surfwax has just launched its LookAhead search term suggestion technology combined with Wikipedia into a new site calledWikiWax. Over 600,000 Wikipedia index terms are listed with more than 2,000,000 LookAhead rotations available. Remember, you'll see LookAhead offering suggested entries prior to clicking the search button."

Posted by Gary Price at 2:44 PM | Permalink

November 9, 2005

Answers.com Adds New Content to Database

Word from Answers.com that they've added several new reference selections to their already impressive collectin of free tools. New this month: + Devil's Dictionary - quaint dictionary by Ambrose Bierce + Jargon - computer related terms + AnswerNotes - miscellaneous terms and names

Posted by Gary Price at 6:28 PM | Permalink

Search & Portal Features Charted

Reading the Google Tea Leaves has Tristan Louis doing a nice job charting various search and portal features that the major services offer, reminding me exactly what I used to do back in the late 90s. But maintaining those charts is a nightmare! If you need a quick rundown, definitely check it out. Tristan also uses the charts to speculate on what products Google might offer. No real revelations there, however.

Audio search? Sure, that's kind of obvious without the charts and overdue, especially with Yahoo's continued expansion.

An encyclopedia partnership? Google kind of has that already with the existing Answers.com deal, which sometimes brings up encyclopedia info along with dictionary definitions, including that from Wikipedia. Plus, it's hard to do a search these days it seems and not run into Wikipedia on the first page of Google results.

Google also talked with Wikipedia about a hosting deal, though I don't recall seeing anything further on that. FYI, Yahoo did do a partnership with Wikipedia, but looking today, that seems to have ended, with the Columbia Encyclopedia being used instead.

Clustered results? Google's got the technology already, just not the desire to use it nor really a pressing need since clustering's hardly been a category killer (Ask Jeeves used to offer it. So did FAST. Clusty still does. None of them have seriously rivaled Google for traffic).

Calendar? Again, obvious portal feature, especially for a company with a mission of helping people organize information. So much info is calendar driven that this is a necessity. Jeremy Zawodny asked for one earlier this year, and we've had recent signs one may be coming.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:34 AM | Permalink

October 25, 2005

Subject Experts Review Wikipedia Entries

The Guardian article: Can you trust Wikipedia?, asked subject experts to review Wikipedia enteries in their areas of expertise. Some very interesting reading. As I mentioned last week, I plan to do a podcast interview with Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, sometimes in November.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:20 AM | Permalink

October 20, 2005

Answers.com Creates One-Click Answers Tool for Wikipedia Content

Word from Answers.com that they have partnered with the Wikipedia Foundation to use Answers.com's 1-Click Answers technology to create a co-branded version of Answers.com to be called 1-Click Answers, Wikipedia Edition.

Here's a bit more about Answer.com's 1-Click technology that's currently available. Wikipedia content is currently available in the main Answers.com database.

1-Click Answers, Wikipedia Edition advertising revenues will be split with The Wikimedia Foundation.

Additionally, Wikipedia will create a "tools" page on the English version of Wikipedia site with 1-Click Answers, with Wikipedia Edition receiving "charter placement."

?We are pleased to partner with Answers.com, encouraging software that improves access to Wikipedia,? said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder and Wikimedia Foundation President. ?Bob Rosenschein and his team have created an innovative technology which helps users click on any word in any application to look it up in Wikipedia. We expect that our users will appreciate the extra convenience.?

Posted by Gary Price at 3:09 PM | Permalink

October 19, 2005

GuruNet Officially Becomes Answers Corporation

I guess it's all in the name. Fact database GuruNet that became Atomica and then changed back to GuruNet is now offically known as Answers Corporation provider of Answers.com. Phew, I hoped I got that all right.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:14 PM | Permalink

October 18, 2005

Orlowski Talks Quality Problems at Wikipedia

(via Threadwatch) This time Andrew Orlowski is all over Wikipedia in the article: Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems.

It's strong stuff from a writer who is famous for very strong stuff. I'm going to plan to come back in the future for more personal observations but for the most part, much of what the article has to say (and the quotes Orlowski includes), I tend to agree with and in some cases have been hinting at for a long time. However, that's not saying that some of what Wikipedia offers is useful and important.

In my opinion, Wikipedia will need several more years of development and maintanence to see if it's going to be a lasting and valuable research resource or turn into another Open Directory Project where editorships are now up for sale. Also, will volunteers get tired and move on to the next big thing?

Especially since Wikipedia's material is replicated endlessly on the web: it's the first port of call for "sploggers" who create phoney sites, spam blogs, which created to promote their clients in Google.

Yes, that's an issue and will continue to grow. One of the positive things (in most cases) about the Wikipedia is how quickly pages can be updated with new facts. The challenge is that anyone can download Wikipedia data on a specific day and are then not required to update it. How does the inexperienced searcher or teacher know what he or she is looking at? Is the Wikipedia going to become a place for sploggers and others to find free content to place ads.

What about professional editors, fact checkers, etc? An article from Red Herring a year ago this week, reported:

Wikipedia?s Mr. Wales has said that next year he will begin using editors to review the web site?s content for accuracy and allow users to rate contributions to the encyclopedia for their quality. ?It?s complex because it?s a social community, and feelings can be hurt,? said Mr. Wales, but he added that the change will be critical when Wikipedia content is put on more permanent media, such as CD-ROM disks.

Are they still coming and if they are will this cause problems in the community has Wales hinted at a year ago.

I wonder how Microsoft's plan that lets users submit material to Encarta and then have it verified is going?

Postscript: Just had a brief phone chat with Jimmy Wales. He's got lots to say. So, come early November when I return from Internet Librarian and the California Library Association Conference, we'll do a podcast interiew with Jimmy.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:20 PM | Permalink

October 13, 2005

Mashing Up Google Maps with Wikipedia Articles

Google Maps, now integrated with Google Local, offers a lot of information about local merchants, but these detailed results typically don't include "overview" information about locations. Wikipedia, by contrast, has great general-information articles about thousands of places throughout the world.

A new service called Placeopedia maps geographic locations in Wikipedia articles onto Google Maps. It's a great feature that bolsters both services. More in today's SearchDay article, Mapping Places in Wikipedia.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:00 AM | Permalink

October 7, 2005

A Free General Reference Newsletter (Fun Too!)

I thought I would toss out an FFU (free, fun, useful) monthly newsletter.

This newsletter is provided by The World Almanac and Book of Facts, a classic and authoritative reference book that's published annually. In fact, it's one of the best-selling (if not the best-selling) American reference books of all time. Its been published since the 1860's. Some online services make it available electronically as well as being available for Palm devices.

OK, now the free stuff. Each month on The World Almanac web site provides a useful monthly newsletter (free) of (key events, holidays, national days, etc), a review of news from the previous month, celebrity birthdays, obits, historical info (This Day in History), and more. The newsletter is lots of fun to browse, yes, browse.

Access to the newsletter is easy and about as straightforward as it gets. Simply head to The World Almanac site and look for the "Free World Almanac Newsletter" link. Here's a link to the current (October 2005) issue. An archive of all newsletters back to 2001 is also available. You can even receive the newsletter by email.

This might be the type of resource you'll want to cache locally (My Web, FURL, Google Desktop, Filangy, etc.) and turn into an easy to use searchable database of fast facts. Of course, you can also limit your search to site:worldalmanac.com [foo] and search most of the material.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:29 PM | Permalink

September 15, 2005

Updated List Of Answer Search Engines & Travel Search Engines

I somehow grabbed some time from the ongoing search news to start on some site updates! Answer Searching & Answer Search Engines is now minty-fresh with resources that help you get answers, such as from reference works or fact databases. Going on a trip? Travel Search Engines is also now updated with all those new travel search engines that tap into more than just partner databases, along with some old favorites. More updates to come, as I can squeeze them in.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:02 PM | Permalink

September 13, 2005

Community-Built Wikipedia's Strengths & Weaknesses

Everybody helps write Wikipedia from the Richmond Times Dispatch is a nice overview on how Wikipedia is assembled by a community, a strength in that good information can get out quickly but a weakness in that allowing anyone to change it leads to accuracy and legitimacy issues. I was just over there today

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:07 PM | Permalink

August 29, 2005

Answers.com Unveils Toolkit for Educators

Late last week Answers.com launched their "Teacher Toolkit." It's an innovative way for Answers.com to alert one community of users to tools and services that they might find useful. Kudos to Answers.com! I hope you continue to develop, expand, and market the program.

I've said for a long time, here on the SEW Blog and over on my ResourceShelf site, that search companies should do more to work alongside the education and library communities to help produce better information consumers and more efficient searchers. It would also allow the companies to gain some mindshare and maybe some user loyalty by teaching people how to take full advantage of what their search tool has to offer. People can't use what they don't know about. This relationship might also allow search companies get feedback about new ideas, features, and services. Perhaps the Answers.com initiative will help motivate other companies into developing similar programs.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:09 PM | Permalink

August 11, 2005

Answers.com and Opera Announce Partnership

According to a News.com story and this news release, access to the Answers.com database will be built into the Opera web browser toolbar. The companies will share revenue generated by users visiting co-branded content pages.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:45 PM | Permalink

June 21, 2005

Answers Partners With IceRocket

The increasingly popular vertical engine Answers.com has just announced a partnership with IceRocket. According to the news release, IceRocket will send visitors to Answers.com for reference material and Answers.com send "blog search" traffic to IceRocket. Answers.com will earn a slice of any revenues generated by referral traffic.

I'm assuming this means Answers.com will soon provide a "blog" search tab on their home page that will be powered with results from IceRocket. This is would be similar to what Answers.com is now doing with Shopping.com.

Answers.com integrates Google Web Search and AdSense on their site. About six months ago, Answers.com began providing dictionary definitions and related info to Google.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:23 PM | Permalink

June 16, 2005

AccessMyLibrary.com Puts Library-Only Content On The Web

AccessMyLibrary.com is a new site from Thomson Gale that has made content the publisher provides to library now accessible through the web. Searchers can go to the site directly, and if they have a US library card, access information behind password walls. Google and Yahoo are also apparently indexing abstract pages, so that relevant content may appear within regular search results.

Library Materials Given to Search Engines from the AP takes a closer look at the service, which was announced today.

Libraries offering free remote access to databases (think of them as vertical search engines) containing full text material (articles, reference info, etc.) from thousand of publishers is not new. As many of you know, I've been posting about this for a long time here on the SEW Blog and on my ResourceShelf site. In 2003, I wrote an article for SearchDay on this topic. Last week, I wrote a guest column for BetaNews that provides an overview about what you can find.

Needless to say, today's announcement is very exciting news. Hopefully, more people will become hip to the fact that many library services, not only databases, are accessible without having to go to the library building.

So, how will also of this work?

• As you review web search results from Yahoo or Google you might find results from a Thomson Gale database. If you see material you might find useful, you'll click and determine if your local library is participating. Then, simply enter your library card number. Click again and the full text should be available.  
• You'll also be able to access Thomson Gale material via the Yahoo Subscriptions service. TG was named as a content partner yesterday. See our overview here. I would guess that some material will also be included in the Google Scholar database.

Remember, material is just starting to enter the Yahoo and Google databases. As Liedtke notes,

The search engines began scanning the Thomson Gale data Thursday, but it could be awhile before the material starts to emerge in search results.

Until then, these tips:

• Simply and painlessly go to your library's home page (what I would suggest) and look for the link to their electronic databases. Again, more about this here.  
• You could also go to the AccessMyLibrary.com site, see if your library is participating, enter your card number, and begin searching.

A final caveat for now. Thomson Gale produces some great databases full of wonderful content from top publishers but they're not the only database provider out there.

For example, someone with a San Francisco Public Library Card can also access materials (full text books) and full text articles from many other database vendors including ProQuest, EBSCO, and even the Oxford English Dictionary.

Caveat aside, I think this quote from Clara Bohrer, president of the Public Library Association says it best,

"It's a real positive step," Bohrer said. "Most libraries just haven't been able to get the word out about all the wonderful resources that they have online. Hopefully, people will start finding more information through these searches and say, 'Gee, maybe I better go check out my local library's Web site and to see what else I can find there.' "

Posted by Gary Price at 7:11 PM | Permalink

May 12, 2005

Online Poker Searches Not Driving Wikipedia Popularity

Recent news from competitive intelligence and analytics firm Hitwise that the community-created Wikipedia encyclopedia saw a rise in popularity over the past month got me thinking. Did this have more to do with a link bombing campaign by some bloggers to push Wikipedia into the top results for "online poker" at Google? After some checking, Hitwise says that's not the case.

The story now posted for Search Engine Watch members goes into depth about why bloggers want Wikipedia to do well for online poker and how stats show the campaign isn't behind Wikipedia's rise in general popularity. Plus, a look at who is doing tops for searches on online poker and the surprising top search term that's sending Wikipedia traffic.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:17 PM | Permalink

April 20, 2005

Ask A Question and Get an Answer at Wondir

Sometimes it's much easier to get the answer you need from another person than to spend time searching for it. A service called Wondir, makes it possible to ask questions on any topic and get answers from other members of the community. The service is completely free and supported by advertising from Google.

Wondir has been around for a couple of years (here's a 2002 story from SearchDay) but the official launch of the service came yesterday. Stop by, ask a question or share an answer. You don't have to be a registered member of the community to use the service. However, registered users gain access to many features including an question alert service. Additional details in this news release.

Wondir is being led by info industry veteran Matt Koll. Matt is the person Chris and I credit in our book with coining the term, Invisible Web. Here's a link to a Q&A interview with Dr. Koll that I put together last year.

Btw, Wondir isn't the only place you can have questions answered for free. Most libraries (public, academic, even The Library of Congress) offer "virtual reference" services where you can interact with librarians and ask questions via an IM like tool. Not into IM? Most libraries also offer e-mail and telephone reference service. More about virtual reference in this post.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:38 AM | Permalink

April 7, 2005

Google Launches Q&A Service, Answers Directly on Results Pages

I've said for quite some time that search engines will slowly but surely become "answer engines" for "ready reference" or factual types of questions.

Today, Google joins other search providers by offering answers (they're calling it Google Q&A) on results pages. I've been wondering the GooglePlex would begin offer this type of service.

Answers, if available, are placed in a OneBox at the top of the results list. Make sure to not confuse this with the Google Answers service that allows you to interact with human researchers.

Google is mining open web content including material from the Wikipedia for answers versus using material from reference tool like MSN Search does with Encarta.

Ask Jeeves, who has been offering Smart Answers for two years, also mines answers from sources like the Internet Movie Database and WHO2.com Google's "define" feature (a Google Labs graduate) culls definitions, and acronyms from the open web. Here's an example.

How does Google's new service compare to what others offer. To early to say from a few sample queries but from what you'll see linked below, I see it on par with what others offer. Yes, I know it's a beta so we'll be watching closely. Here are a few (very few) examples to give you some idea of coverage. Yes, once again I know it's a beta. (:-: An * means that MSN provided a direct answer for this query. An ** means that Ask Jeeves offers a SmartSearch box for this query.

+ Capital of France *,**

+ Current President of Spain?, * Note: No Google OneBox answer. However, removing the word current from the query does provide a Google result.

+ World Series Winner 1987?, * No Google OneBox answer

+ Where is Mountain View? *, ** No mention of the California city that's home to the GooglePlex )-:

+ Where is Timbuktu, *? No Google OneBox

+ When is Labor Day 2005?, ** No Google OneBox.

+ Who is Lebron James?, *

+ What is RSS?, **

+ Where was Bill Clinton born? Note: Result from Who2.com, a source that Ask Jeeves also uses.

+ Zip Code for Evanston, Illinois, ** No Google OneBox answer

+ Who Shot Abraham Lincoln?, *

+ Author of To Kill a Mockingbird, *

Answer engines are just on the radar screens of large web search providers. Services like BrainBoost offers answers mined from the open web. We've also read about search technology from Kozoru that will soon play in this space. "Know it All" is being developed at the University of Washington.

Yahoo and AOL offer shortcuts that work by entering a "trigger" word along with a search term into the search box. In some cases an answer might be listed on the results page and in other cases a link to a specialized database is provided. Here's an example of Yahoo offering info from the Columbia Encyclopedia about the subject of television. Btw, see this post (from earlier today) about material from Wikipedia coming to Yahoo results pages very soon.

These blog posts from November and February have more about what others offer and a bit of history about placing answers directly onto results pages.

No answers just questions to ponder... Will publishers spring up who just offer verified and dynamic databases of facts ready for mining?

Actually, they already do. Facts.com is one example. They offer a web-based version of the legendary Facts on File service which is available free online from many public and university libraries. I wonder if web search providers or even search verticals might partner with this legendary "fact" provider and mine these database for factual answers. The same thing with the material like xrefer provides. This would not only provide answers but also allow content from highly respected reference publishers to find more users.

Finally, one thing is for sure, ready reference answer services will also be big winners as mobile web search continues to grow. In fact, Google Q&A is now a part of the Google Mobile service. That's cool! Recently, Answers.com, launched a mobile version of their answer oriented search vertical.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:52 PM | Permalink

March 29, 2005

Answers.com Goes Mobile

Yes, I love my mobile search tools and once again news about a new service. Today, Answers.com has released a mobile interface for their database. I think this is a perfect fit and to be honest, something I've wanted to see and use for a long time. To access, simply point your wireless web browser to: http://mobile.answers.com

Posted by Gary Price at 10:01 AM | Permalink

March 22, 2005

More Press For the Vertical Search Biz

Olga Kharif's Business Week article: Search, the Next Generation, takes a look at the increase in specialized tools (aka verticals) that haven been coming fast and furious lately and several of which have been mentioned on the SEW Blog or in SearchDay before. You'll read about: + Become.com ||| SEW Blog Post

+ Nextaris ||| SEW Blog/SearchDay Posts

+ BlogStreet

+ FactBites

+ Snap.Com ||| SEW Post

Posted by Gary Price at 10:49 AM | Permalink

Get Your Facts Straight

When you need to quickly look up factual information, search engines typically aren't the best tools for the job. Sure, the majors are all continuing to introduce shortcuts that provide ready reference information, either directly or through links to partner web sites. But you're never really sure what you'll get until you try a search.

You're almost always better off going directly to an online ready reference source. In today's SearchDay article, Just the Facts, Please, guest writer Mary Ellen Bates writes about two free, comprehensive and usually reliable sources that can help you find quick answers to factual questions in a hurry.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:37 AM | Permalink

March 21, 2005

Wikipedia Plus Dynamic Search Term Suggestions = WikiWax

Surfwax has just launched its LookAhead search term suggestion technology combined with Wikipedia into a new site calledWikiWax. Over 600,000 Wikipedia index terms are listed with more than 2,000,000 LookAhead rotations available. Remember, you'll see LookAhead offering suggested entries prior to clicking the search button.

What's a term rotation? LookAhead automatically rotates Wikipedia index terms, so you can find Abraham Lincoln under both Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln, Abraham. LookAhead automatically inserts a comma after the first word on topics that are rotated, e.g., Abraham, Lincoln.

Another example. A term rotation could also help find the entry for the Boston Tea Party. Of course, it would be found if the searcher enters Boston Tea Party. However, term rotation will also point out the entry if the searcher begins their search by first typing the words "tea party."

By the way, after clicking the search button, you're taken directly to the article on the Wikipedia.org site.

Also, should you find LookAhead oddly familiar to Google Suggest, be aware that Surfwas was actually offering this technology months before Google Suggest, combined with with their news search engine. I blogged about LookAhead and something similar from AOL in this January post.

Posted by Gary Price at 7:34 PM | Permalink

March 17, 2005

Getting Answers From Answers.com's CEO

The answer man from News.com has GuruNet CEO Bob Rosenschein -- whose company runs Answers.com -- answering some questions of his own, such why the company will succeed at making money this time, when it failed previously, how it's not competing with other search engines, even though some think it is.

As for search engines having "lists" built into their DNA, that DNA has long been evolving into direct answers, as we've written before. In other words, some people assume that Answers.com is somehow going to wipe out search engines by providing direct answers. The search engines are doing that now, have been doing it and are growing it even more. Our forum thread Who knows Answers.com? looks at this more, with comments from me.

The key thing everyone needs to understand is that search engines are not about spidering 8 billion pages anymore, as Rosenschein puts it. They are evolving into providing answers from spidering or from gather that from any other source that fulfils the role of answering questions. My Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Developments With Consumer Search article examines this more.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:47 AM | Permalink

March 8, 2005

Google and Answers.com Announce Ad Deal

Word this morning that Gurunet (the parent of Answers.com) and Google have signed a deal that will place Google AdSense advertising on Answers.com pages.

Gurunet also announced that they're now offering a co-branded and integrated version of Google on their site.

Links are located in a box labeled "search" on the left side of pages.

Answers.com provides web results via a co-branded page. You'll also see links to Google Images and Google News. Direct links to weblog content from Technorati and product search from Amazon.com are also available.

At the beginning of this year, Answers.com began providing Google with dictionary definitions and other material linked from Google serp.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:22 AM | Permalink

February 10, 2005

GooglePedia? Google Wants to Help the Wikipedia

A post at Dirson kicked off a Slashdot discussion about Google offering to host "some" Wikimedia content. What this precisely means is not spelled out. A post on the Wikimedia wiki says that "terms" of the offer are being discussed and that a private IRC meeting is scheduled for March. It also mentions that Google's offer "does not mean" there will be a requirement to include advertising on Wikimedia sites. Stay tuned.

Wikipedia and other Wikimedia content is currently accessible via Google from one of the many services that host the content. Wikipedia material is also included with many of the dictionary definitions linked to each search term via Google's new relationship with Answers.com. The new MSN engine offers "direct answers" powered with material from Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia. Yahoo! provides material from the Columbia Encyclopedia on a serp when a shortcut (the word "facts") begins the query string. The encyclopedia can also be searched on the Yahoo Reference site.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:01 PM | Permalink

February 7, 2005

Vertical Search Tools Getting More Attention

As someone who comes to web search with a librarian/researcher perspective, I've long known and understood the value of specialized (aka vertical) search tools. In the last year it seems many other web searchers are beginning to realize that while large general web engines are essential, specialized/focused search tools can also provide quality answers in a shorter amount of time while also allowing the to do more with the data. The "buzz" that verticals are are receiving is very evident in Lisa DiCarlo's article on Forbes.com. She calls Answers.com the best Internet innovation in years." The Forbes article is also proof of what a high quality service, a name change, and some buzz can do. As many of you know, Answers.com has been around since 1999. It was first known as GuruNet, then Atomica, and then back to GuruNet before renaming the public site, Answers.com.

Call it whatever name you like, Answers.com has long been a very useful service that I even paid for when it was subscription-based. I'm very happy to see this vertical search provider and other verticals beginning to get the attention and more importantly the users they deserve. I've often used Walt Mossberg's 2003 review of the Answers.com (at that time known as GuruNet) in training sessions since it does a great job of not only explaining what this service provides but also what other specialized search tools can offer versus a general purpose tool.

In 2004 GuruNet/Answers.com went public. The company also holds three U.S. patents awarded in 2003 and 2002 ||| Patent #2, 2002.

Finally, I'll use this opportunity to remind you again that it's very likely you have access to many high quality, fee-based vertical search tools for free without even having to leave your house. This SearchDay article explains.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:54 PM | Permalink

January 20, 2005

Answers.com Now Supplying Dictionary Definitions and More to Google

Google is slowly switching from its long-standing use of Dictionary.com definitions to Answers.com definitions. The migration began on Jan 18. Some may still see Dictionary.com definitions, but this example shows how Answers.com material is coming into play. Why the change? "We're always experimenting with new services to gauge whether they are useful to users," said Google spokesperson Nate Tyler.

What does this mean for the researcher in terms of results? + Both Answers.com and Dictionary.com supply results from the The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. The only difference is that the edition Answers.com uses has a 2003 copyright date. + Answers.com also offers free access to an audio pronounciations (click on the speaker icon) of terms. Dictionary.com charged for this service. + Answers.com pages can provide you with more than just a dictionary definition. You'll also find encyclopedia entries, translations, and content from other ready reference tools. Here's a complete list of the sources included in their database.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that a9 has offered Answers.com content since it launched last year.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:17 AM | Permalink

January 4, 2005

ObjectGraph and Other Dynamic Search Term Suggestion Tools

If you find Google Suggest interesting and/or useful, Tara lets us know about the ObjectGraph Dictionary. It has the look and feel of the new Google new term suggestion tool.

ObjectGraph allows you to find definitions based on a word list using a version of the 1913 edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (about 200,000 words) or the Free Online Dictionary of Computing (about 14,000 terms).

Btw, in this December blog post, I pointed out two other services: AOL's PinPoint Shopping and the LookAhead News Index from Surfwax that also offer dynamic search term suggestions. AOL's tool has been online for several months while LookAhead News has been available for about a year. Worth a look.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:46 PM | Permalink

The Best Reference Sites of 2004

While search engines are getting better at answering specific questions, nothing yet beats a specialized site designed to provide "ready reference" information on demand. The best of these sites can deliver up facts on just about any subject imaginable with little effort or fuss—if you know where to find them and the scope and limits of the information they offer.

Today's SearchDay article, The Best Online Reference Sites features a sampling of these sites chosen as the best of the year by the American Library Association. Read on to find out more about the ALA's selections.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:13 AM | Permalink

January 3, 2005

GuruNet Becomes Answers.com and Is Now Available Free!

Some exciting news for the web researcher to begin the year.

GuruNet, the very useful and formerly subscription-based ready-reference web database and client app, full of fast facts and other information from over 100 reference sources, has launched a new site: Answers.com and is now available for free.

That's right, the complete database, is now accessible via a web interface or a "1-click" client app (Windows or Mac), is available at no charge. Here's a directory of the sources available from Answers.com.

GuruNet plans to earn revenue via keyword-based ads. The company is currently talking with several companies to provide the advertising.

Answers.com is formally a service from GuruNet. In October 2004, GuruNet went public and is now trading on the American Stock Exchange. GuruNet also provides reference content to other sites, including a9.

Walt Mossberg's 2003 WSJ review of the GuruNet service offers some excellent points about how this service is different as compared to what you find with general-purpose web engines. + First of all, in most cases Google doesn't actually provide you an answer, just a list of links to Web pages where information might be found. + Second, you're doing all this in a general, undifferentiated piece of software called a Web browser that isn't designed to help you drill down into information. + Third, neither the browser nor Google gives you a good sense of the credibility of the sources that turn up, just their popularity.

Since Mossberg wrote the review it's worth noting that the general web engines are also beginning to focus on answers (for certain types of queries) instead of just links offering shortcuts and other tools. I have examples of some of what's available in this blog post.

If you've never used this excellent search tool, make sure to check it out. It's more than worthy of your attention.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:52 PM | Permalink

October 4, 2004

Just the Facts

An article from BBC Online, The future of facts, takes a brief look at information quality and authority issues on the open web and then discusses what a couple of companies are doing about it.

The article mentioned is Kozoru, a product being developed in the U.S. that we blogged about here. This post also contains a mention of GuruNet.

Also mentioned in the article is Smart Search technology from Ask Jeeves and Ask Jeeves UK. You can see Smart Search in action when you search for newsmakers/celebrities, want to know who won an Oscar, or need basic links/info for a specific location. Unlike the "old Jeeves" where question and answer sets were built by humans, most of this is done by automated mining specialty databases. Instead of just providing links to possible answers we're seeing actual answers given (mined from "trusted" sources) or direct links to focused sites. This way the searcher is not only saving time but also being directed to quality material similar to how a good librarian might suggest a specific reference resource. One of the five laws of libray science (yes, laws exist) is to "save the time of the reader." In some ways Smart Answers is doing this for the web searcher. Finally, 82ask.com is mentioned. This is a UK based service that answers questions via SMS. We blogged about another SMS service here.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 30, 2004

Getting Answers Via Search: A Development Roundup

In Answer Engines, Gary Price does a round-up on recent news and papers about trying to get people direct answers to their queries, rather than links to pages that may (or may not) have the answers.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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