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