There is definite need of such a services but I am not sure if any of the current ones have worked the best way. For some reason, the trust/knowledge gauge is missing. Nevertheless, it will be awesome to if live.com search results showcase QnA answers most relevant to search queries.

For users who do spend time answering, it will be interesting if someone build a simple application to track questions and answers from within that application and perhaps create a webpage/blog post out of it which the user can continue to monetize herself.

Not to slight the folks across the lake, but we’ve been doing local P2P Q&A with trustworthiness rankings since Windows Live was a just a gleam in billg’s eye. Admittedly, we can’t even begin to claim “answer liquidity” in every U.S. city, but our Seattle site (http://www.judysbook.com/cities/seattle) is getting close…

A question and answer app. Who would have thunk it?

Microsoft innovation at work…

“QnA allows people to ask questions of their knowledgeable friends, family, classmates at school, professional and community peers in a way that others around the world can benefit from the answers.”

That sounds more like a social network meets Q&A to me. Maybe more like the Expo model.

This is pretty much a copy of Yahoo! Answers, right down to the concept of “Best Answer” and “Latest Questions”.

This proves again the spirit of innovation that exists at Microsoft.

You should take a look at Ketady (www.ketady.fr). This site routes question to “experts” automatically, based on probabilistic techniques. As soon as you register, you become an expert and the Ketady engine will route some questions to you based on the analysis made from your profile.

Ketady lacks many things Yahoo and Google answers have, particularly on the interface side, I think, but is really the only participative, fully scalable “answering” system that can work with millions of members (everybody is an “expert” on a particular topic, as Mac Luhan could be saying).

-> I am not related to the company, just think it’s a wonderful idea.

askeet.com.

Bill Gates…. The Darth Vader of innovation.

Are the folks over at Microsoft really doing this? There has been absolutely no innovation in the past two years from Microsoft (with the exception of the XBox 360).

Microsoft’s new business plan:
- Release a new OS every 6 years.
- Change Office’s UI every 2 years.
- Watch what Google and Yahoo do, do it 6 months later, but not quite as good - oh yeah, claim it’s the best thing since sliced bread.

I assume it’s OK in the but it’s rubbish in the EU. Sorry.

I think what makes this different is that it will be intergrated to the search somehow. I think Yahoo is trying to get there first though (even before Google in fact because they really have not intergrated answers with search).

If Yahoo does what I think it is doing, answers, tag search and their other resources will allow them to biuld a nice search engine.

Actually, Yahoo! is already showing some results from Answers on some web searches.

I seriously doubt Microsoft copied Yahoo! Answers in fewer than 6 months… Wouldn’t it make more sense that both companies were working on the idea simultaneously, with Yahoo having a lead in release time?

Rabble Rabble Rabble.

Three tiny screenshots and everyone’s already an expert on Microsoft’s plans with this. My god, let the product launch before you kill it.

kenlet.com is another QnA site that wasn’t mentioned (and there are probably many more). But at kenlet.com people actually pay for answers and earn money by answering questions, kind of like Google answers but with a more open market, anyone can answer questions. Do you guys think in the long run this is a more sustainable model than the free everything model? I mean, who really wants to spend all this time *continually* answering questions for complete strangers? Is the respect that one could obtain by answering questions really appeal to that many people? And I think only very very few could get the “fame and recognition” that they are talking about.

Don’t forget

http://www.answerbag.com (general)
http://www.advicenators.com (teenage it seems)
http://www.dearcupid.org (love)

etc.

Answerbag was acquired recently.

“Some people will love the fame and recognition that answering questions will bring them; others will appreciate getting answers quickly and easily.”

How about some money?

Kenlet appears to have similar “values” as HelpShare (which has been around since 2000). We too think better answers come faster to those who pay.

HelpShare delivers on many of these ideas as it combines free and $ reward based questions, allows users who want to answer to set up multiple email based “expert alerts” for efficient routing and delivers an automatic rating system of both “askers” and “answerers” based on their history. And, HelpShare takes the idea one step further allowing Partner web sites to add full HelpShare functionality to enable their users with Q/A. See http:// helpshare.lockergnome.com for a tech focused example. It also enables bloggers and other sites to become HelpShare Affiliates, generating new revenue for the all sites involved.