[wordup] New Google Service

[Adam Shand]

From: Colin <colin_dabritz at hotmail.com>

*warning* long winded, ramblings *warning* (wait doesnt that fit right
in? ;) just kidding, keep up the good wordup work!)

First impresions of the Google Answers service

This is really cool!  But it already has some issues.  I was looking over
some questions, here are the highlights.

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6183

$50.00 this man is useing it to find potential employers in NYC, also ones
that haven't had major layoffs.  Gonna be tough..

What are all the internet related companies in New York city have the
following criteria:

more than 40 employees
less than 300 employees
Have at least 20 employees who are programmers
predominantly use Unix based technologies
Use technologies other than Java
Did not have any major layoffs in the past 6 months

the question I have is, is this information worth the $50 (-25%) that he is
offering (limited by the maximum)?  A temporary work around would be to
intentionally double post, and link each post to the other, basically,
answer both the same way and I'll give you $50..  could be strung out as far
as you like of course.  Have 100 'stub' listings, and one real listing, with
the question and links to all the stub listings?  $5000 (-25%)..  %25 does
seem high..  They do have to proccess applications though.  (including mine)
For the moment thats probably taking all the profit from this.

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6186

$10.00, this person (couple sounds like) wanted to know cost of living
differences, between sanfrancisco, CA and berlin, germany.

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6219

$4.00, here the person asked a question, and got no answer (yet), BUT
someone gave a pretty decent answer in the comments secion..  How are you
gonna keep the 'good samaritans' or people just browsing questions, from
poping in and taking away your money?  At the moment they probably have a
LOT of people looking at questions, who havent gotten thier applications
proccesed yet.  I would feel kinda bad giving a qualified answer and taking
away someones money...

Which leads me to, why not have a simpler 'free question' area for stuff
that isnt worth $4 and let everyone have at it.  The best question answeres
there would have a good 'background' to apply to the paid are with.  That
way you keep the goof offs out of the 'profesional' area.  Just a thought..

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6207

$5.00, Couple interesting facets here.  Comments answerd the question fairly
well, and the official answer was after (it refers to "").  Also the guy
told us the google search he used. Fairly straight forward, would have taken
about 15 minets to find a good answer, or a 'how-to'.  Was that worth the
$5?  it was 26 minets before the person got thier answer and it probably
took a nice bit of time to post the question.  Makes you wonder..

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6197

$5.00 another interesting use.  Getting the aproximate value of an item.
Would be nice for ebay on those expensive items, esp if you didn't know. "go
to this auction for this (really expensive) item HERE, what is it really
worth, and are there other, better sources?"

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6193

$5.00, first honest to god research question I've run across :)  This person
wants to know about people contracting Polio through bad vaccines in the
1950's 1960's.  And for $5.00 they got a Whoper of an answer.  *evil thought
springs to mind*  "Write a history paper on the battle of gettysburg,
$4.00"... Could this be an easy way for students to cheat?  $4.00 gets you
out of how much time and effort?  But then, would anyone take it?  and could
it be considered inappropriate content, as in the disclaimer at the bottom?
"If you feel that you have found inappropriate content, please let us know
by emailing us at answers-support at google.com with this Question ID. Thank
you." Interesting thoughts..

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6189

$10.00 wants the best solution for Scanning and Digitizing pages.  Got a
nice long answer too.  Could this be a nice 'reverse' forum for finding
technical solutions?  "design a network to meet these needs, and tell us how
to set it up.  $500" (would need to do the 'stub' idea I had above).

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6230

$4.00 prety vauge question.  (and one that the Personal Telco Project is
trying to deal with ;)

When designing a public library, what formula should one use to
determine the number of public access computers that are needed?
Almost imediately (5 minets) there is a comment asking for clarification.
In that comment the person actually gives a partial answer.  Holding out for
the money? :)

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6027

$15.00 Needs a new Iron, wants a rundown of options, and features.  Got a
monster response, rated five stars.  The comments are in awe.  But for
fifteen dollars I would expect as much..

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=5147

$30.00 Find 3 companies wich offer electronic signature or digital signature
products.

Overpriced in my opinion, but the guy seemed very happy with it (5 stars).
He aparently spent 2 hours on it without results.  Easy money?  I suppose it
would depend on your expertise..

https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=6017

$5.00 and to please the audiance here, a test question "Where can i find
free online books about UNIX systems administration?" :)  Got a good answer
and a rundown by the askee (?) about what was good about it.

reinard-ga rated this answer:

This was my first question, and admittedly it was a test and a
challenge to see how this whole system works. I really like it. As to
the answer I received, it was good. It's informative and a great
starting point for further search. The answer was very appropriate
given the fact that I only put up $5 for it. I didn't really learn
anything great and new as far as published online books go (I'm
already a member at informIT, I use O'Reilly's and FreeBSD's websites
almost daily) but this is not due to the fact that the answer is low
in quality, but rather that it is difficult to nearly impossible to
find complete free online books that aren't outdated. What I really
liked and give the author of this research props for (and is probably
the reason i chose 5 stars instead of 4), is the fact that s/he
extended my question reasonably and found those links to the course
notes which I checked out, and they're actually really good - pretty
much like a full online book! I will definitely use this system in the
future when I have difficult research topics or simply no time to do
the research myself. Thanks Google, thanks researcher-ga.

A cool system that will probably have alot of uses.  I may post a couple
interesting and pointed question *about* the system.  "Is 25% to much to pay
for google answers?  Your thoughts and similar services.." :)