no.stupid.answers

I love the smell of wrapping paper in the morning.

Well, who doesn’t? We just unwrapped these brand new features on Answers.com, and unlike a bratty 2-year-old, I’m even willing to share what’s inside:

Find friends!

Search for other Answers.com members on any bio page.  The best way to take advantage of this feature is to search with keywords for hobbies, professions, interests – for example, search for “knowledge ninjas” and guess who shows up?

More messages!

Now when you view your message board, you can check out the site-wide message bar right above. That way you can flip through (using the arrows to the right and left of the messages) and learn what’s new on the site, helpful pages and the latest contests. Thanks to Mr. Mystery for the suggestion!

Tag, you’re linked!

When signed in, your username listed at the top of the lefthand Tools Menu now links to your bio page as opposed to the WikiAnswers main page.

No shame in checking yourself out once in a while, right?

Well, social webbies, you’ve got the Facebook, you’ve got the Twitter, the Yahoo! and Google accounts to play around with. And now you’re about to spend more time online with those IDs. Answers.com announced its new social media angle today at CES in Las Vegas:

Answers.com Connects with Social Media

Users will now have the option to log in to Answers.com with their preferred Web identities. Experts will also be able to identify themselves with their real names, more conveniently building their online reputations.

“We see a big advantage in allowing our contributors to use their existing Web identities on our site,” said Bob Rosenschein, CEO. “This change is expected to simplify login, reduce time to contribution, and increase the quality of our answers, as more people visit our site and build their online reputations. We added support for Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo! accounts today and will be adding support for Google accounts in the near future.”

In short, you can create a new Answers.com account using your existing Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo! account. What’s the advantage? As mentioned, it’s a great way to build on your already existent social web ID and if you connect through Facebook, it adds the real-life human element to your answers and bolsters your online reputation.

If you happen to be at CES, visit the Answers.com booth at ShowStoppers Media Event tonight.

Lately I’ve been reading about “building your blog/reputation/traffic with Q&A.” In fact, in the last few days I’ve read posts from Search Engine Journal, The IT Informer, Swiss Army Librarian, and Baltimore SEO. It’s actually very clever and easy to do, when you think about it. It’s an excellent tool for bloggers, site owners, librarians and professionals to get their names out and build credible reputations in the online universe.

Let’s say I sell jewelry online. On top of just selling jewelry, I actually know my stuff: I know my gemstones, I know my metals, know what works and what doesn’t. I could actually let me knowledge of jewelry do me good.

Here’s how I would go about it:

• My Username: I would join WikiAnswers and choose a username that sounds professional but friendly. Something like, JewelryGenius or KnowsJewelry.
• My Bio Page: My Bio Page would be the center of my universe on WikiAnswers. It would be the place where I list my experience in the jewelery business, why I’m qualified to answer such questions, what my business is about and how you could contact me. These pages are available to search engines, so make it look good, it’s a reflection on you and your cause. Your Bio Page and contributions are also linked from your username, so when you answer a question or make a change on the site, you are constantly linking other people to your details.
• My Watchlist: My Watchlist is an excellent tool for getting new questions answered right away. Add as many categories as you like to your Watchlist, and get notified when those categories are updated with new unanswered questions. I would add the Jewelry category to my Watchlist, for instance. I would also go to My Settings and make sure I’m getting updated with an email when new questions are added to my Watchlist.
• Answer questions: Once that’s set up, I could get started answering questions about jewelry. I could go directly to the Jewelry category or do a search for jewelry keywords.
• Tip: When you are the first to answer a question, your username will stay linked under the question for all of eternity.

For more information on using WikiAnswers, see the Help Center.