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'''Yahoo! Answers''' is a community-driven [[knowledge market]] website launched by [[Yahoo!]] on [[December 13]], [[2005]] that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer questions asked by other users. The site gives members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation and is based on [[Naver|Naver's]] [[Knowledge iN]]. As of December 2006, it had 60 million users and 65 million answers, accelerated by the closure of Google Answers. On [[June 11]], [[2007]], Yahoo!'s former questions and answers service, '''Ask Yahoo!''', was formally merged with Yahoo! Answers.<ref>[http://searchengineland.com/061213-085832.php Yahoo Answers Birthday: One Year Old<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Yahoo! Answers has become the second most popular Internet reference site after Wikipedia, according to Comscore. (As of September 2006)<ref>[http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/09/01/8384345/ Does Yahoo have the right answers? - September 1, 2006<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
'''Yahoo! Answers''' is a community-driven [[knowledge market]] website launched by [[Yahoo!]] on [[December 13]], [[2005]] that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer questions asked by other users. The site gives members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation and is based on [[Naver|Naver's]] [[Knowledge iN]]. As of December 2006, it had 60 million users and 65 million answers, accelerated by the closure of [[Google Answers]]. On [[June 11]], [[2007]], Yahoo!'s former questions and answers service, '''Ask Yahoo!''', was formally merged with Yahoo! Answers.<ref>[http://searchengineland.com/061213-085832.php Yahoo Answers Birthday: One Year Old<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Yahoo! Answers has become the second most popular Internet reference site after Wikipedia, according to Comscore. (As of September 2006)<ref>[http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/09/01/8384345/ Does Yahoo have the right answers? - September 1, 2006<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>


==Site operation==
==Site operation==

Revision as of 23:28, 14 September 2009

Yahoo! Answers
This file may be deleted after Friday, May 15 2009.
Screenshot
File:Y! Answers.png
Yahoo! Answers home page as of June 11, 2008.
Type of site
Collaboration
Available inEnglish, Chinese, French, German, Indonesia, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese
OwnerYahoo!
Created byYahoo!
URLanswers.yahoo.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationYes

Yahoo! Answers is a community-driven knowledge market website launched by Yahoo! on December 13, 2005 that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer questions asked by other users. The site gives members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation and is based on Naver's Knowledge iN. As of December 2006, it had 60 million users and 65 million answers, accelerated by the closure of Google Answers. On June 11, 2007, Yahoo!'s former questions and answers service, Ask Yahoo!, was formally merged with Yahoo! Answers.[1] Yahoo! Answers has become the second most popular Internet reference site after Wikipedia, according to Comscore. (As of September 2006)[2]

Site operation

Any question is allowed on Yahoo! Answers, except ones that violate the Yahoo!Answers community guidelines.[3] To encourage good answers, helpful participants are occasionally featured on the Yahoo! 360° blog page. Though the service itself is free, the content of answers are owned by the respective users — while Yahoo! maintains a non-exclusive royalty-free worldwide right to publish the information.[4] Chat is explicitly forbidden in the Community Guidelines, although users may choose to reveal their Yahoo! Messenger ID on their Answers profile page.

In order to open an account a user needs a Yahoo! ID, but can use any name as identification on Yahoo! Answers. A user can also be represented by a Yahoo! avatar or a Yahoo! 360° picture. When answering a question, a pull-down menu allows one to choose to search all over the Internet.

Questions are initially open to answers for four days. However, the asker can choose to close the question after a minimum of four hours or extend it for a period of up to eight days.[5] To ask a question one has to have a Yahoo! account with a positive score balance of five points or more.

The points system is weighted to encourage users to answer questions and to limit spam questions. There are also levels (with point thresholds) which give more site access.[6] Aside from this, points and levels have no real world value, cannot be traded, and serve only to indicate how active a user has been on the site. A notable downside to the points/level side is that it encourages people to answer questions even when they do not have a suitable answer to give, in order to gain points. Users also receive ten points for contributing the "Best Answer" which is selected by the question's asker or voted on by the community. Contributors often vote for their own answer regardless of its quality or appropriateness. On the other hand, many people ask questions not to gain more knowledge.

The point system encourages users to answer as many questions as they possibly can, up to their daily limit. Once a user shows that they are knowledgeable within a specific category they may receive an orange 'badge' under the name of their avatar naming them a "Top Contributor". The user can then lose this badge if they do not maintain their level and quality of participation.[7] Once a user becomes a "Top Contributor" in any category, the badge appears in all answers, questions, and comments by the user regardless of category.

Level / points table

  1. 1–249
  2. 250–999
  3. 1,000–2,499
  4. 2,500–4,999
  5. 5,000–9,999
  6. 10,000–24,999
  7. 25,000+

Points are earned as per following Points Table:

Action Points
Begin participating on Yahoo! Answers One time: 100
Ask a question -5
Choose a best answer for your question 3
No Best Answer was selected by voters on your question Points Returned: 5
Answer a question 2
Deleting an answer -2
Log in to Yahoo! Answers Once daily: 1
Vote for a best answer 1
Vote for No best answer 0
Have your answer selected as the best answer 10
Receive a "thumbs-up" rating on a best answer that you wrote (up to 50 thumbs-up are counted) 1 per "thumbs-up"
Have a question removed due to a violation -10

Voting and rating with "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" is done anonymously, and once done cannot be changed. Users may tag an interesting question with a star, and the list of users who have so tagged a question is made public.[8] On Answers profile pages, users can track how many stars they have received for their questions. However, a user may un-star a question at will. In the event a question is deleted, any stars it had at the time of deletion are still credited to the asker's account. Users may also keep a separate watchlist of questions that is kept private.

Answers On The Street

Beginning July 2, 2007, Yahoo! Answers began featuring weekly video segments called "Yahoo! Answers On The Street." Hosted by J. Keith van Straaten, the 3-4 minute videos draw on questions from the Answers community and mix together expert interviews with comedic man-on-the-street pieces. A new episode is posted every Monday, with previous episodes archived.

Criticism

The site has been criticized as being more about social networking than providing accurate information.[9] Even though members can be academic experts and researchers, Yahoo! Answers' target group and majority is primarily the mainstream; hence, it has been criticized for both its high quantity of dubious questions and the reliability, validity, and relevance of its answers.

The site does not have a system that filters the correct answers from the incorrect answers. It only allows the user community to choose the best answer from a line up of answers.[10]

Special guests

Several celebrities and notables have appeared on Yahoo! Answers to ask questions. These users have an "official" badge below their avatar and on their profile page. During the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney posted questions on Yahoo! Answers in addition to YouTube.[11] In an awareness campaign, "UNICEF Up Close 2007", nine UNICEF ambassadors asked questions.[12][13] The launch of Answers on Yahoo! India included a question from A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India at that time.[14] Other guests have included international leaders (Queen Rania of Jordan [1], candidate for United Nations Secretary-General, Shashi Tharoor [2]), Nobel Peace Prize laureates (Al Gore[15][16], Muhammad Yunus [3]) and other international activists (Bono[15], Jean-Michel Cousteau [4]), intellectuals (Stephen Hawking[15], Marilyn vos Savant[16]), and numerous celebrities.

Further reading

  • Gomes, Lee (2006-07-13), "Got a question? Yahoo has an answer – kind of", The Wall Street Journal (reprint) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  • Gomes, Lee (2006-08-23), "Portals: Success, greed in the new economy of web point payouts", The Wall Street Journal (reprint) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)

See also

References

  1. ^ Yahoo Answers Birthday: One Year Old
  2. ^ Does Yahoo have the right answers? - September 1, 2006
  3. ^ Community guidelines
  4. ^ What is the copyright status of responses submitted to Yahoo! Answers? Can good info be moved to Wikipedia? from Yahoo! Answers.
  5. ^ Yahoo! Answers Help
  6. ^ Yahoo! Answers - Point System
  7. ^ Yahoo! Answers help - What is a "Top Contributor"?
  8. ^ Yahoo! 360° - Yahoo! Answers Team Blog (answers.yahoo.com) - Seeing Stars?
  9. ^ Leibenluft, Jacob (2007-12-07). "A Librarian's Worst Nightmare: Yahoo! Answers, where 120 million users can be wrong". Slate.
  10. ^ Angwin, Julia (2008-12-23). "Looking for a Few Good Answers Online". WSJ.
  11. ^ Mills, Elinor (April 11, 2007). "Presidential candidates to appear on YouTube". CNET News. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  12. ^ "Yahoo Answers Unicef And Widgets Vista". WebProNews. January 30, 2007. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  13. ^ "UNICEF Up Close 2007". 2007. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  14. ^ "`Yahoo! Answers' launched". The Hindu Business Line. The Hindu Group. January 14, 2007. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  15. ^ a b c Ian Sample (July 8, 2006). "Hawking turns to Yahoo for answers to his big question". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  16. ^ a b Michele Herman (June 23, 2006). "Answer Al Gore's Question, Win a Prius". Extra Helping. School Library Journal. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
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