Tech Notes with Herb Kim

Oct 4 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal

WE spend our lives searching for answers.

What colour tie should I wear? Is that contract worth the lengthy procurement process? What’s the meaning of life?

Websites are springing up where you can ask all these questions, from trivial to life-changing, in the hope of getting well-researched answers.

Of these, Yahoo Answers (YA) is the most popular site that allows users to ask questions and answer those posted by others. It’s been kicking around since 2005, but hasn’t received the media attention of other community-driven sites such as Facebook or MySpace.

Personally, I hadn’t used it until a couple of weeks ago, after a colleague told me he’d found it useful when buying his first home recently.

On the site, you can ask a question and wait for the community to post their answers or you can answer someone else’s.

You get points for answering questions and choosing top answers – a neat touch that encourages the community to contribute. I’ve gotta admit, YA is pretty addictive. Reading through other users’ questions and answers can be fascinating (“Why do people prefer the first of everything?”) worrying (“How do you use the touch of death?”) and heartbreaking (“Are my mom and dad supposed to be together?”).

I’ve also stumbled across a couple of comedy gems, such as “What is love?” – aptly asked in the security category – and “Have you caught anyone sniffing their armpits?” – asked in environment.

That’s all very well, you say, but is it any good? So far, I’ve found YA useful mainly for trivial questions. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for important business or legal advice, unless you’re happy to take counsel from a 14-year-old kid. Nevertheless, the community is remarkably quick and generally helpful.

Yahoo’s isn’t the only knowledge exchange site though, and there’s definitely a business use for these. Online networking community LinkedIn offers a similar service that’s much more appropriate for businesspeople.

In the words of a user, “[On LinkedIn] the answers are typically useful, practical and professional. On Yahoo, however, the culture is more free-wheeling, includes a lot of adolescents and wing-nuts, is a lot more like the culture at-large and therefore tends to be more frivolous.”

If you’re unsure what film to go see tonight, go to YA. If you need free advice you can trust, I’d suggest giving LinkedIn Answers a go.

And hey, if you’re still not sure which to try, why not just ask?

I’ve also stumbled across a couple of comedy gems