So what’s the deal with question and answer sites where people spend endless hours answering questions from other people who are too lazy to use a search engine?
Apparently, there’s something there, but is it because of the sites’ relative novelty (much like Friendster enjoyed a wave of popularity years ago), or something else?
Well, there’s information in these sites. But it’s challenging to actually find it.
The well-regarded MIT Technology Review took a look at 6 of the largest Q&A sites, and found some good and some lacking.
But it takes a lot of sifting to get truly useful information from these sites. Each boasts a core of devoted members who leave thorough and well-documented answers to the questions they deem worthy. And most of the sites have systems for rating the performance or experience of answerers, which makes it easier to assess their reliability, while also inspiring members to compete with one another to give the best answers. But not all of the Q&A sites do this equally well; after all, the companies that run these sites are selling advertising space, not information.
The best sites? Not surprising, the ones with the most eyeballs (and therefore, the greatest diversity) — Yahoo! Answers, Amazon’s Askville and MSN’s Live Q&A.
Supposed thought-leader Wondir (purchased by my friends over at Revolution Health) tied for last place. Let’s hope Revolution’s UI folks took a sledgehammer to Wondir’s UI when it rolled it out in its new form at Revolution’s website.
Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.Like this author?
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 27 Dec 2006
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Grohol, J. (2006). Question and Answer Sites Reviewed. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 14, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2006/12/27/question-and-answer-sites-reviewed/
