Google Answers Article

Bids up to AU$330

[vitaplease]

Its been a while [webmasterworld.com] since google answers has gone live.

This article has some interesting remarks on the service:

[smh.com.au...]

for one I did not know they raised the maximum to $ 330.-
<<edit>> that is USD 200.- <<edit>>

Some former researchers say that because most questioners offer a tiny fee, there is intense competition among researchers for higher-paid questions, which encourages them to answer queries outside their field of expertise

anyone a researcher here?

also, did not know there was an Australian office..

[rfgdxm1]

I wouldn't give Google Answers much credibility. As a joke, the owner of a major indi Usenet provider paid them to answer the question "Why is <name of his company> better for binaries than the other providers?" He got back a glowing reply as to why his company was so much better. IOW, the person who answered told him exactly what he wanted based on the biased question. ;)

[vitaplease]

I don't know, I like the idea and set-up.

Anyway, how much credibility can you buy for such little funds?

I would have suspected that, one year after launch, they would have attracted more questions and answers than the approx. 80 a day they do now.

Probably the quality of regular Google Serps is giving this service the most competition.

[ciml]

> would have attracted more...

It might be different if Google search topics weren't forbidden. As it is, the action's over here. But no $200 :-)

Seriously though, I absolutely agree about the quality of Google's SERPs being an issue. Making 'NEAR' default (i.e. proximity weighting) was a huge usability bonus for them IMO.

Oftentimes, you do not need to be an expert to get much of the benefit from Google that an expert searcher would. That written, I've seen some super responses on Google answers and the researchers do a great job.

[steve128]

IMHO google answers is a superb resource. But answering obvious school/uni essay questions needs to be looked at.
Well for $2.00 and perhaps 3/4 hrs work it does, ;0.

Some people do, I do admire their enthusiasm and must say they must enjoy the research, because they are obviously not answering for financial gain.

[netguy]

To: Google Answers
Bid: $100

How do I remove 1 illegal competitor from holding 5 positions on page 1 of my primary keyword?

;)

[MeditationMan]

My single experience of Google answers was excellent. For a book I was writing I needed to know who had said the following:

"And happiness... what is it? I say it is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing or that, but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing. It is this primal law of all nature and the universe."

I needed to have a reference that included the author, the book, the publication date, etc. I'd spent hours looking on the web for that information and $15 got me the answer that I couldn't find on my own.

I'd looked at the quality of the answers to other questions beforehand and had been impressed. I was even more impressed when they found the reference I was looking for within 24 hours (during which time I was doing more useful things).