Comments on: Answerbag bets the farm on widgets and an API http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/ Startup and Technology News Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:00:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: lawrence coburn http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-209652 lawrence coburn Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:50:30 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-209652 This is no tiny start up. Their parent, InfoSearch Media, is a real company with some cash. They are a pretty big player in the SEO / SEM / Content Writing space. Not surprising that they are looking to build a community content platfrom - it's a lot cheaper than hiring writers. This is no tiny start up. Their parent, InfoSearch Media, is a real company with some cash. They are a pretty big player in the SEO / SEM / Content Writing space. Not surprising that they are looking to build a community content platfrom - it’s a lot cheaper than hiring writers.

]]> By: Peter Cooper http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-183381 Peter Cooper Sun, 10 Sep 2006 13:55:57 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-183381 <a href="http://guruza.com/" rel="nofollow">Guruza</a> is also in this field. Guruza is also in this field.

]]> By: Dead2.0 » The Weekly Froth: 5 Web 2.0 Gems http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179837 Dead2.0 » The Weekly Froth: 5 Web 2.0 Gems Fri, 08 Sep 2006 20:57:42 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179837 [...] AnswerBag TechCrunch reports they are “betting the farm” on widgets and an API. This is one of the few Web 2.0 companies I’ve seen who is directly competing with a hugely established company (or two) that is already in the exact same space. It would be one thing if Yahoo! Answers only had a small user base, or no API, or anything.  But they have 40 million answers at the time of writing. Unless they have some other hidden strategy, I’m dropping answerbag in the bag.  The only gotcha I see here is they are owned by a bigger player… [...] [...] AnswerBag TechCrunch reports they are “betting the farm” on widgets and an API. This is one of the few Web 2.0 companies I’ve seen who is directly competing with a hugely established company (or two) that is already in the exact same space. It would be one thing if Yahoo! Answers only had a small user base, or no API, or anything.  But they have 40 million answers at the time of writing. Unless they have some other hidden strategy, I’m dropping answerbag in the bag.  The only gotcha I see here is they are owned by a bigger player… [...]

]]> By: Answerbag Released new Widgets and an API » Dee’s-Planet! Blog http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179836 Answerbag Released new Widgets and an API » Dee’s-Planet! Blog Fri, 08 Sep 2006 20:54:45 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179836 [...] Tonight’s widget enables users to put Answerbag functionality on any other site they publish. Publishers will be able to display Answerbag information parsed with a number of criteria at their discretion, so a site about cats or chewing gum will be able to offer a question and answer service about cats and chewing gum that queries and extends beyond that site’s own readership. The widget is also very brandable with just a little CSS (Cascading Style Sheets); unlike other widgets it’s not all javascript.”Continue to read more… [...] [...] Tonight’s widget enables users to put Answerbag functionality on any other site they publish. Publishers will be able to display Answerbag information parsed with a number of criteria at their discretion, so a site about cats or chewing gum will be able to offer a question and answer service about cats and chewing gum that queries and extends beyond that site’s own readership. The widget is also very brandable with just a little CSS (Cascading Style Sheets); unlike other widgets it’s not all javascript.”Continue to read more… [...]

]]> By: Joel Downs http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179738 Joel Downs Fri, 08 Sep 2006 19:12:22 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179738 One of the comments was "'I wouldn’t advise competing with Google in things they’re good at.' Does this mean AnswerBag thinks that G.Y.M is not doing a good job?" It's easy to answer the first part: GA is a completely different model than AB because they require users to pay for answers, and the answerers are on their staff. Y!A is a much closer comparison to AB because we allow anyone to ask and answer, and the service is free. Since I may be biased (haha) I won't elaborate or nitpick here, but I'll just say that different Q&A services have different feels, from the UI to the submission guidelines to the actual content that's contributed by the users of the service. Some services appeal to certain types of users, while some appeal to others. As someone above pointed out, we've been at it for over 3 years now, but it's really still early in the game, as noted by Y!A and MSN's relatively recent entries. We do our best to provide a service that is truly useful for people, and we will continue to play our own game. One of the comments was

“‘I wouldn’t advise competing with Google in things they’re good at.’ Does this mean AnswerBag thinks that G.Y.M is not doing a good job?”

It’s easy to answer the first part: GA is a completely different model than AB because they require users to pay for answers, and the answerers are on their staff. Y!A is a much closer comparison to AB because we allow anyone to ask and answer, and the service is free. Since I may be biased (haha) I won’t elaborate or nitpick here, but I’ll just say that different Q&A services have different feels, from the UI to the submission guidelines to the actual content that’s contributed by the users of the service. Some services appeal to certain types of users, while some appeal to others. As someone above pointed out, we’ve been at it for over 3 years now, but it’s really still early in the game, as noted by Y!A and MSN’s relatively recent entries. We do our best to provide a service that is truly useful for people, and we will continue to play our own game.

]]> By: Rusty Razor Blade http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179671 Rusty Razor Blade Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:54:46 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179671 <strong>Answerbag Reviewed on Techcrunch...</strong> Worth mentioning that the site I develop, answerbag.com, has a pretty good review on TechCrunch.  They mentioned the XML API we have in the works, and the widgets we just came out with. ...... Answerbag Reviewed on Techcrunch…

Worth mentioning that the site I develop, answerbag.com, has a pretty good review on TechCrunch.  They mentioned the XML API we have in the works, and the widgets we just came out with.

……

]]> By: jd http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179525 jd Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:10:54 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179525 The answers game is still pretty young - I expect to see: 1. Niche Answers sites - if I can go to an answers site with the right group of experts that's a lot better than throwing my question to the masses (we used to call these forums) 2. An edgeio type site that aggregates a common tag like 'question' - when we get to this step I'll be very happy. I see people asking questions on their blogs seeking to leverage the knowledge of their user base - they'd get much better answers if they could extend that audience in the same way that edgeio helps extend the audience of your posts tagged listing. It's an exciting space, and there's no reason that G,Y,M or have to win. Best of luck to answerbag. The answers game is still pretty young - I expect to see:
1. Niche Answers sites - if I can go to an answers site with the right group of experts that’s a lot better than throwing my question to the masses (we used to call these forums)
2. An edgeio type site that aggregates a common tag like ‘question’ - when we get to this step I’ll be very happy. I see people asking questions on their blogs seeking to leverage the knowledge of their user base - they’d get much better answers if they could extend that audience in the same way that edgeio helps extend the audience of your posts tagged listing.

It’s an exciting space, and there’s no reason that G,Y,M or have to win. Best of luck to answerbag.

]]> By: Darshan P http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179510 Darshan P Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:39:35 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179510 It would be interesting to find out what measures they have in place to ensure that the quality of their answers doesnt drop once they open up their API. It would be interesting to find out what measures they have in place to ensure that the quality of their answers doesnt drop once they open up their API.

]]> By: AnswerBag = Frågetjänst 2.0? « bibl.se http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179509 AnswerBag = Frågetjänst 2.0? « bibl.se Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:38:47 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179509 [...] Läs recension om frågetjänsten på den alltid lika läsvärda bloggen TechChrunch! [...] [...] Läs recension om frågetjänsten på den alltid lika läsvärda bloggen TechChrunch! [...]

]]> By: One Hit Wonders http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179442 One Hit Wonders Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:03:49 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179442 And the business model would be....? Oh, right: sell it to GYM! And the business model would be….?

Oh, right: sell it to GYM!

]]> By: Jason S http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179325 Jason S Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:06:17 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179325 cool one!!! Cheers! Jason S http://jsbi.blogspot.com cool one!!!

Cheers!
Jason S
http://jsbi.blogspot.com

]]> By: Daniel Eder http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179237 Daniel Eder Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:29:37 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179237 I run an Q&A myself at duno.com and i believe that your article is either paid or very biased. Widget here or that there... no big deal. I run an Q&A myself at duno.com
and i believe that your article is either paid or very biased.
Widget here or that there… no big deal.

]]> By: Jeremy http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179172 Jeremy Fri, 08 Sep 2006 08:11:07 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179172 Well...Interestingly enough AnswerBag has been around for years -- well in advance of anything in this category that Yahoo or Google launched. It's good to see them have a few tricks to compete. The downside of the huge volume on some of the big guys "answer sites" is a major lack of quality of the answers, and AnswerBag does a good job moderating theirs. Hopefully that scales well through the API! Well…Interestingly enough AnswerBag has been around for years — well in advance of anything in this category that Yahoo or Google launched. It’s good to see them have a few tricks to compete. The downside of the huge volume on some of the big guys “answer sites” is a major lack of quality of the answers, and AnswerBag does a good job moderating theirs. Hopefully that scales well through the API!

]]> By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Answerbag、ウィジェットとAPIに社運を賭ける http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179097 TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Answerbag、ウィジェットとAPIに社運を賭ける Fri, 08 Sep 2006 06:45:42 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-179097 [...] [原文へ] Answerbag [...] [...] [原文へ] Answerbag [...]

]]> By: NeoTechie http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178904 NeoTechie Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:48:44 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178904 Web users are smarter that we think. Come on don't we realize that were are in Web 2.o. Yes to great apps but no to belittling users that are the sole creator of Web 2.0. We have to give credit where credit is due. To the pioneers of Web 1.0, THANK YOU! We would have never made it to version 2.0 without you! COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE ROCKS! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! Web users are smarter that we think. Come on don’t we realize that were are in Web 2.o. Yes to great apps but no to belittling users that are the sole creator of Web 2.0. We have to give credit where credit is due. To the pioneers of Web 1.0, THANK YOU! We would have never made it to version 2.0 without you!

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE ROCKS!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

]]> By: Garry http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178872 Garry Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:30:07 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178872 Sounds pretty cool. Do you think that they sit well with Google? Sounds pretty cool. Do you think that they sit well with Google?

]]> By: ToddW http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178869 ToddW Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:29:20 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178869 Maybe they think they can do a better job ;) Maybe they think they can do a better job ;)

]]> By: Folksonomy.org http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178852 Folksonomy.org Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:23:37 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178852 Or maybe Answerbag is choosing to go against the advice of Paul Graham. Or maybe Answerbag is choosing to go against the advice of Paul Graham.

]]> By: Startups.in/India http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178678 Startups.in/India Fri, 08 Sep 2006 02:24:26 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/#comment-178678 So they are up against the big brothers - Google Answers, Yahoo Answers, MS QnA. Paul Graham's recent comment comes to my mind. "I wouldn’t advise competing with Google in things they’re good at." Does this mean AnswerBag thinks that G.Y.M is not doing a good job? So they are up against the big brothers - Google Answers, Yahoo Answers, MS QnA. Paul Graham’s recent comment comes to my mind.

“I wouldn’t advise competing with Google in things they’re good at.” Does this mean AnswerBag thinks that G.Y.M is not doing a good job?

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