| Revision as of 06:53, 4 December 2008 editJCDenton2052 (talk | contribs)5,087 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 07:15, 4 December 2008 edit undoNovangelis (talk | contribs)Pending changes reviewers8,598 editsm Undid revision 255798381 by JCDenton2052 (talk)Next edit → | ||
| Line 16: | Line 16: | ||
| | revenue = | | revenue = | ||
| }} | }} | ||
| '''Yahoo! Answers''' is a community-driven ] website launched by ] on ], ] that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer asked questions from other users. The site gives members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation and is based on ] ]. As of December 2006, it had 60 million users and 65 million answers. On ] ], Yahoo!'s former questions and answers service, '''Ask Yahoo!''', was formally merged with Yahoo! Answers.<ref></ref> Yahoo! Answers has become the second most popular Internet reference site after Misplaced Pages, according to Comscore.<ref> |
'''Yahoo! Answers''' is a community-driven ] website launched by ] on ], ] that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer asked questions from other users. The site gives members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation and is based on ] ]. As of December 2006, it had 60 million users and 65 million answers. On ] ], Yahoo!'s former questions and answers service, '''Ask Yahoo!''', was formally merged with Yahoo! Answers.<ref></ref> Yahoo! Answers has become the second most popular Internet reference site after Misplaced Pages, according to Comscore.<ref></ref> | ||
| ==Site operation== | ==Site operation== | ||
Revision as of 07:15, 4 December 2008
| File:Yahoo!Answers.gif | |
| Screenshot File:Y! Answers.pngYahoo! Answers home page as of June 11, 2008. | |
| Type of site | Collaboration |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, Chinese, French, German, Indonesia, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese |
| Owner | Yahoo! |
| Created by | Yahoo! |
| URL | answers.yahoo.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Yes |
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 asked questions from 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. On June 11 2007, Yahoo!'s former questions and answers service, Ask Yahoo!, was formally merged with Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Answers has become the second most popular Internet reference site after Misplaced Pages, according to Comscore.
Site operation
Virtually any question is allowed on Yahoo! Answers, except ones that violate the Yahoo! Answers community guidelines. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.. 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
- 1–249
- 250–999
- 1,000–2,499
- 2,500–4,999
- 5,000–9,999
- 10,000–24,999
- 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" |
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. 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 askers account. Users may also keep a separate watchlist of questions that is kept private.
Highlighting users
From time to time, the Yahoo! Answers team selects a user from the millions who use the feature and writes a blog about him/her in the Yahoo! Answers Blog. This is called the Featured User section. The blog usually talks about the user's activity on the website, as well as a little bit about the user's hobbies. When a user is selected as a Featured User, he/she is sent an e-mail, asking for some details like hobbies, interests, occupation, etc. The user is usually expected to give a few comments on Yahoo! Answers as well. The user is expected to reply to the message appropriately, and the blog is put up in a few weeks. The Blog is on the Yahoo! 360° service.
Yahoo! Answers also has a "Best of Answers" section, in which Yahoo! staff pick questions that have been answered with a particularly highly rated "best answer."
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
Social networking
The site has been criticized as being more about social networking than providing accurate information. Even though members can be academic experts and researchers, Yahoo! Answers' target group and majority is primarily the mainstream; henceforth, it has been criticized for both its high quantity of dubious questions as well as the reliability, validity, and relevance of its answers.
Community moderation
In September 2007, Yahoo! Answers staff replaced the traditional reporting system with community moderation, in which all users effectively moderate content within the forum. Based on the ability to accurately report content that violates the Yahoo! Answers community guidelines , users are assigned a reporting status as either trusted or untrusted. The higher the reporting power, the stronger this user's influence is concerning the removal of reported content. This had led to criticism that an 'automated' system has evolved in which trusted users can abuse community moderation to remove acceptable content that doesn't violate the rules. The site has also been criticized for lack of oversight on the banning of user accounts. Trolls who create multiple accounts specifically target random users and click on the "Report Abuse" button. All account suspensions are coordinated via Yahoo! Customer Care clients, thus severity and frequency of violation notices may merit a permanent account suspension from the service or even the termination of their Yahoo! account. More recently, Yahoo! Answers staff removed the Yahoo! Answers appeal board. Users are now required to fill out appeal forms to contest a recent violation or account suspension.
Malware
The site also experiences numerous user accounts disguising malware links as answer sources.
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. The list of Special Guests has included well-recognized celebrities and intellectuals, such as Marilyn vos Savant, the Guinness record holder for highest IQ.
Some of other celebrities that have Asked and/or Answered questions on the site:
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
- Yahoo Answers Birthday: One Year Old
- Does Yahoo have the right answers? - September 1, 2006
- Community guidelines
- What is the copyright status of responses submitted to Yahoo! Answers? Can good info be moved to Misplaced Pages? from Yahoo! Answers.
- Yahoo! Answers Help
- Yahoo! Answers - Point System
- Yahoo! Answers help - What is a "Top Contributor"?
- Yahoo! 360° - Yahoo! Answers Team Blog (answers.yahoo.com) - Seeing Stars?
- Leibenluft, Jacob (2007-12-07). "A Librarian's Worst Nightmare: Yahoo! Answers, where 120 million users can be wrong". Slate.
- "Yahoo! Answers Community Guidelines".
- Marco, Meghann (2007-04-12). "Watch Your Mouth On Yahoo! Answers Or They'll Delete Your Email And Website". The Consumerist. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
- "Appeal form".
- "OFFICIAL MALWARE BATTLE THREAD | Yahoo! Answers Suggestion Board". Retrieved 27 November 2008.
External links
- Yahoo! Answers official site
- Official Yahoo! Answers blog
- Yahoo! Answers Help and Suggestions Board
- Yahoo! Answers scoring system
- The Best of Answers 2006
- Yahoo! Answers On The Street
- Yahoo! Answers Leaderboard
- Answers API
- Article in New York Times
- Article In Search Engine Watch
- Ask Yahoo!, Yahoo!'s former Q&A site, now merged with Answers
- Python wrapper over Answers API
| Yahoo | |
|---|---|
| Websites | |
| Communication | |
| Corporate | |
| Defunct services | |
| Related people | |
| Related | |
 Category | |