| FOR the guy in charge of promoting Yahoo! | | | | Since the service was launched a year ago, Yahoo! |
| Answers, Bradley Horowitz seems awfully | | | | has introduced 20 localized versions, including one for |
| preoccupied with questions these days. | | | | the Philippines ( These local versions enable visitors to |
| What, for example, did Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, | | | | post questions to and receive answers from their |
| Stephen Hawking, and Bono hope to learn from the | | | | own online communities. |
| "wisdom of the crowd?" | | | | All told, the service draws 90 million users a year, and |
| The celebrity questions are part of a clever effort to | | | | has generated about 250 million answers, Yahoo! |
| drum up interest and participation in Yahoo! Answers, | | | | says. |
| the Internet giant's poster child for "social search." | | | | Adding some star attraction to the service, Yahoo! |
| Yahoo! Answers ( is a free service that enables | | | | has encouraged celebrities to ask their questions |
| visitors to ask questions on any topic and have them | | | | online, giving ordinary people the chance to interact |
| answered by other people online. The same online | | | | with them. |
| community gets to vote for the best answers. | | | | Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for example, |
| Social search, explains Horowitz, vice president of | | | | asked how ordinary Americans would improve health |
| product strategy at Yahoo!, is the next phase of | | | | care in the United States. |
| Internet search. | | | | Oprah asked: "If you were given $1,000 to change |
| The first phase, pioneered by Yahoo!, focused on | | | | the life of a perfect stranger, what would you do?" |
| human-edited directories that organized Web pages | | | | Stephen Hawking wanted to know how the human |
| according to content in a hierarchical fashion. | | | | race could survive the next 100 years, and U2's Bono |
| The second, marked by search engines such as | | | | asked what we can do to make poverty history. |
| Altavista, used software to ferret out pages on the | | | | In Malaysia, Yahoo! invited awarded movie director |
| Web as these became too numerous to catalog | | | | Yasmin Ahmad to ask her question, and she wanted |
| manually. | | | | to know what could be done to nurture and support |
| The third phase, marked by the ascendancy of | | | | aspiring Malaysian filmmakers. At last week's launch, |
| Google, provided more relevant results by combining | | | | Yahoo! was still screening choices for a Filipino |
| search algorithms with an analysis and ranking of | | | | celebrity. |
| Web pages based on the number and quality of | | | | There is no guarantee that celebrities will really listen |
| other pages that linked to them. | | | | to the answers, of course. Clinton, for example, |
| Social search combines the best properties of the | | | | received over 38,000 replies in just two days-then |
| first three phases. In Yahoo! Answers, for example, | | | | left it to the community to pick the best answer, a |
| answers are filtered through a grading system that | | | | move that many felt was a cop-out. |
| lets members of the online community rate the | | | | Remarked Barry M: "I wonder why anyone actually |
| quality of answers. | | | | thought Hillary would listen to anything we had to |
| "Search today, while powerful, is inherently limited. It | | | | say. Have you ever seen any politician ask a question |
| connects keywords to Web pages. Yahoo! Answers | | | | and then 'listen' to the answer? If you expected her |
| provides real answers to real questions," says | | | | to read your answers and choose a winner, you |
| Horowitz. | | | | should have included a blank check with your initial |
| To post questions or answer them on Yahoo! | | | | response." |
| Answers, you'll need to log in using a Yahoo! ID. A | | | | Undeterred, I logged on and asked my own question: |
| point system offers incentives for answering | | | | "When will Yahoo! finally support Linux on Yahoo! |
| questions well. | | | | Widgets?" Horowitz didn't know, so I figured maybe |
| A first-time user gets 100 points to start and can use | | | | someone else would. It's been three days-and I've |
| these to ask questions. You gain points by logging in, | | | | received only one reply. Sadly, it wasn't from anyone |
| answering questions, choosing the best answer to | | | | at Yahoo!--and it wasn't even very useful. |
| your questions, or by voting for the best answer to | | | | Trivial as this example might seem, it highlights one |
| other questions. Active participation enhances your | | | | serious challenge that Yahoo! needs to address to |
| online reputation, which is measured by your | | | | make Answers even more responsive: making sure |
| accumulated points and level. | | | | that the right people see the right questions. |