Google Answers (http://answers.google.com/answers/) is one of several services creating an online commons for impromptu research.
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The queries that users bring to Google Answers touch on all parts of life, but they usually cannot be reduced to a few keywords. One incoming freshman at Bates College in Lewiston, Me., for instance, asked for help finding a parking spot near campus. A stargazer asked the name of the two planets rising early in the northwest sky, and a homeowner wanted a "romantic and literary" name for a new house.
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Ingenio.com, for example, markets the services of traditional professionals like tax lawyers and computer technicians. And some sites, like
Wondir.com, maintain a no-fee exchange of questions and answers - though tipping is permitted.
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Ingenio helps users choose the best adviser by compiling feedback ratings from past users, like the feedback on eBay.
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Not all of the research sites charge. On Wondir.com, anyone can respond to a question, but there is no fee; the site allows those responding to list a PayPal account for tips. In addition, those answering questions can compete for weekly prizes - this week, a tote bag - on a changing set of criteria. One week, the winner may have the fastest response time. On another, it may be the person with the highest approval rating. The site derives revenue from text ads, generated by Google, related to the subject of a query.
Wondir's approach is also different because it makes little distinction in knowledge between the questioner and the answerer. "No one is proclaimed to be an expert," said Michelle Hardenbrook, a moderator on the site. That means, of course, that "anyone can answer any question even if the person answering hasn't got a clue what they are writing or even if the information they are giving is totally inaccurate."
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Is this a good or bad thing?
For years now, my work requires me to do research on the Net or otherwise. And I know how tedious and frustrating it can be when you wanted an information so much and couldn't get any.
Things change when
Google came. Suddenly, any information you want is right at your fingertips and presented in such easy manner. I'm sorry but I couldn't say the same for the other search engines. In fact, the term google has landed on the
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English to mean "to search for information about a specific person/information through the Google search engine." We now often hear people saying "You google it."
True enough, information has become a dime a dozen. The thing is, are these information reliable, credible? We had one experience when a colleague wrote about
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It turned out that the info was not precise as the subject alone was controversial. The story had many versions but the researcher took one version only and presented it as THE right one. After this incident we sort of went back to real books such as Britannica Encyclopedia for general information. And my former boss told us to indicate in our text any existing controversy on a particular subject.
The lesson is really to verify facts and use legitimates sources of information, never mind if we pay for their premium services.
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