no.stupid.answers

Answers.com is proud to participate at MediaPost’s OMMA event today in New York City. Bruce Smith, Chief Strategic Officer, will be sitting on a panel about content at 4:30pm. If you are there, feel free to leave your thoughts on the panel in the comments below.

Here is some more information about the session:

Grilling the Content Farmers: When Data Drives Publishing

A new breed of publishing emerged this past year that reverses the polarity of traditional behavioral targeting. Instead of using content to identify user interests and target ads, they use search and other online behaviors to direct which content to create and push in real time into the information economy. Traditional publishers recoil at the prospect of automated editorial decisions, but do these brash new players have something to teach old media? Advertisers wonder what value to place on these audiences and their declared interests. We bring together new and old publishers and their ad clients to explore the implications of a demand-side content economy.

Moderator: Terence Kawaja, Managing Director, GCA Savvian Advisors

Panelists:
Saul Hansell, Programming Director, seed.com, AOL Inc.
Patrick Keane, CEO, Associated Content, Inc.
Steven Kydd, EVP of Content, DemandMedia
Bruce Smith, Chief Strategic Officer, Answers.com
Josh Stinchcomb, Publisher, Conde Nast Digital

If you’re going to be #2 - why not be #2 after… Facebook?

Answers.com’s WikiAnswers was rated the #2 fastest growing U.S. domain in 2009, right after Facebook. And, hey, that’s ok, since Answers.com recently implemented Facebook Connect as an option for signing in.

Here’s a little more from the official announcement:

“…according to comScore data… WikiAnswers’ unique monthly visitor count in the U.S. grew 74%^(*). This ranks WikiAnswers as the 2^nd fastest growing domain in 2009, second only to Facebook.com, of the top 50 U.S. domains in December 2008.”

Bob Rosenschein, Chairman and CEO of Answers.com, said this about the growth:

“The site’s unique self- reinforcing growth coupled with the efforts of the entire Answers.com team, have once again brought Answers.com to the culmination of a very successful year.”

So for the millions of Answers.com contributors out there - treat yourselves to some chocolate! Even the tiniest edits are building on the amazing, global, growing, collaborative Q&A project that is WikiAnswers.

Answers.com is proud to sponsor the Online Community Unconference by Forum One. The event is taking place today in New York City (despite the impending snowpocalypse!) and the theme of this one is: Moving Forward, Together.

Some of the topics at today’s sessions include:

• Using Community and Collaboration Tools Within the Enterprise
• Lessons Learned: Pitfalls and Best Practices in Community-Building
• How to hire community & Social Media staff

The sky is a little bit closer now that the 250+ titles on ReferenceAnswers include an Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation.

The new reference book provides definitions and illustrations for the entire spectrum of aviation: aerodynamics, navigation, meteorology, aircraft equipment and maintenance, aerial photography, avionics and more.

So where else are you going to learn the science of the reflex camber, check out an illustration of an absolute angle of attack, or learn that ‘eyelid’ is a term for… wait, what?

The results of the 3rd Annual WAmmy Awards (our official WikiAnswers awards show) are in! The winners and their acceptance speeches are now on Answers.com.

But keep in mind the following is just a small sampling of all the awards that have been presented to various users for excellence in contributing. Look for one of these award badges on a bio page near you and feel free to congratulate the contributor for their efforts!

Without further ado we hereby present the winners in our “Best Answer” categories:

• JoyceP became the first repeat winner of the coveted Answer of the Year award this year for her answer to “What are the signs of child abuse and how can you help the abused child to overcome the harm it has caused?” She also took home the WAmmy for Best Advice Answer to “How do you explain to young children that their parents are getting divorced to make the transition as easy on them as possible?”
• Doditov snagged the WAmmy for Best How-To Answer with her response to “How do you potty-train a 3-year old boy?”
• Dick Harfield walked away with the award for Best Researched Answer. His award-winning answer addressed the question “Why do scientists think Earth is 4.5 billion years old?”

Way to go everyone and good luck in next year’s competition!

The 7th million answer was added on WikiAnswers this week. The answer is - drum roll, please…

If nail polish remover went down the sink what would happen?

Answer by Wolfgang schwartzschild: “It will float on top of the trap and stink-up the room until it has all evaporated and dispersed. You could try heavy flushing in hopes of washing it down in the current, or open up the trap and pour it into a bucket.”

Let’s not forget to mention that there were plenty of good answers coming in at numbers like 6,999,998 or 7,000,001:

• When was the last time the Saints went to the Super Bowl?
• Are hedgehogs as prickly as they seem?
• Which organ is part of digestion but not part of the digestive tract?

I’d also like to take the opportunity to point out that great community answers aren’t always the first answer added. Take another look at the prickly hedgehog answer. Two contributors made that answer great; one addressed the question in a functional way while the other addressed it on another level. Q&A the wiki way, where answers grow and evolve and deepen with collaboration.

See you at 8 million!

What’s on your mind? Allow me to share what’s on mine… as well as the collaborative mind of the community-at-large.

Here are some of the latest Hot Topics being worked on by the WikiAnswers community:

• Haiti
• Renewable Energy
• Oscars
• Super Bowl
• Organic Food
• Iran
• Justin Bieber
• Tiger Woods
• Snow and Ice
• Lady Gaga
• MP4 Players
• Resume Writing
• Allergies

Do you have what to add? Visit those categories and add your answers!