no.stupid.answers

After Answers.com made changes to its homepage, voices were raised, opinions were shared and feedback was heard. The following is a special blog post written by Bob Rosenschein, Founder and CEO of Answers Corp and all around answers-enthusiast:

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We value your feedback and critique of the new Answers.com design, so let me share some background with you.

Since 2005, we’ve been investing in crafting Answers.com® as the world’s best encyclodictionalmanacapedia™. We’ve licensed hundreds of editorial reference titles from top publishers, including Houghton-Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Gale, Britannica, McGraw-Hill, Columbia University, MarketWatch, AccuWeather, Wikipedia, and many others.

But we also wanted to add a personal touch. People sometimes want answers beyond reference entries, so in 2007 we added WikiAnswers.com™, which is a Q&A community based on the wiki concept: anyone can add to it, anyone can edit it. The result is a large and growing database of user-generated questions and answers. It is Answers.com’s sister site.

So here are a few thoughts on what we’re trying to accomplish with the new layout:

• Overall. Connect reference Answers.com and WikiAnswers.com better. Make them visually more similar – yes – with bright colors and a blatant box to type in your queries. It also means more cross-links between them. We think users of both sites will be enriched if they know about the other.
• Narrower right column. On Answers.com, we previously had a wide right column, showing several display advertisements in it. The new design has more white space and a narrower right column, with only one display ad. This serves users better by reserving more room for reference content.
• Page navigation. You’ll notice Page Contents on the left hand side of every Answers.com topic page. The idea is to make it easy to see and jump to the various reference sources on each page, without having to scroll down.
• Home page. What were we thinking when we took off Today’s Quote, Birthdays and Histories?! We heard you – and promptly put them back. You may have noticed that we removed an advertisement from our home page, and also put a list of our Reference Categories towards the bottom of the page.

This is a work in progress, so keep those cards, letters, and posts coming. We want your feedback.

It’s been dubbed an ‘integration’ of sorts by Search Engine Watch and a ‘cross-pollination’ by Answers Corps’ CEO…

Want to hear what I’d like to call the supposed plan to connect Answers.com and WikiAnswers more closely? The absolute, godly love between two concepts that care for each other deeply: Reference answers and community-generated Q&A.

Excuse the butterflies flying over my head; I just had to share the rainbows and puppies and fireflies that are skipping along in my brain.

For today’s WikiAnswers Wednesday question, I’m going to go for painstakingly obvious. I think it goes well with my hazel eyes.

Is there a good social search engine where one can search and have questions answered at the same time?

Hmm… While I work that one out, I’d like to bring up an article I just read on the Reuters site: Answers.com sees growth in wiki responses. It’s a quick exploration into where Answers.com, with WikiAnswers by its side, is going as discussed by some of its head honchos.

“Somewhere between Google Inc and the community-generated Wikipedia, reference website Answers.com aims to build a new growth model.

The site has found its millions of users are keen to get community-written bits of knowledge, known as wikis, alongside its trusted encyclopedia entries.” (source)

Gotta love that explanation. A lot of times, when I’m hanging out with people and they ask me what I do, and I mention WikiAnswers, and their faces get all crinkly like one of those mush-face dogs (see right), I explain it like this:

Me: “You know Wikipedia?”

Crinkly face: “Yes…”

Me: “You know how it’s an encyclopedia that anyone can edit?”

Crinkly face: “Ok…”

Me: “So WikiAnswers is a Q&A community, meaning it’s a giant database of questions and answers, contributed by people from all over the world and all kinds of experience. Everyone contributes a bit, creating one complete answer for each question. You can ask or answer anything you like.”

Crinkly face: “OoOOOOoOooOOOo…”

Back to the article:

“Both sites pull up answers based on a question posed by a user, compared with searches for individual keywords used on sites like industry leader Google.”

“Chief Executive Bob Rosenschein said the company would foster more “cross-pollination” between Answers.com and WikiAnswers.com, including a shared search bar.” (source)

Bringing the reference answers side together with the community-generated answers side sounds like a wonderful idea. It’s going to create a powerful force you might want to call a social search engine.

Hmm, so what was that WikiAnswers Wednesday question again?

There’s something warm and fuzzy about being labeled “useful,” as Jeanne Duffey calls encyclopedias, including Answers.com, in her well-written column for news-leader.com:

In print or on the Web, encyclopedias are useful

Donna Bacon, a reference librarian interviewed for the article, offers Answers.com as a good example for where to turn for reference information.

Yes, online encyclopedias are convenient, handy and useful. Bacon recommends Answers.com. “This site uses reputable sources for their encyclopedia-type entries. The reference content is derived from publishers known for their accuracy and reliability.”

Information on the site’s 4 million topics is updated frequently and it’s easy to find what you need, either via a search box or by linking to a list of 18 subjects, from Arts to Zoology. Under each topic are hundreds of subtopics. (source)

I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty damn warm and fuzzy. The truth is, it’s really wonderful to be noted like that by a reference librarian.

While WikiAnswers is most certainly a user-contributed effort, Answers.com certainly embraces the reference side of the coin with its 100’s of resources (almanac, dictionary, government, and of course - encyclopedia).

Sometimes you want straight definitions and fast facts (Answers.com), and sometimes you want advice and experience (WikiAnswers). You could say that one picks up where the other leaves off.

Answers.com is a Webware 100 finalist for it’s 2008 awards. Crenk.com decided to predict who the Webware 100 will include in this year’s list of sites, and - yay! - Answers.com made it there, in the Search & Reference category.

So I guess that means it’s settled, then. Answers.com will win a place in the top 100… but not without your help:

Vote for Answers.com here!