Y! Answers…

I’ve been playing with Yahoo! Answers a little lately, and it’s probably the best site I’ve used in a while. I’m a little late on the Yahoo! answers meme, but it’s simple and useful enough (with a large enough group of answerers) that it really is a great resource.

Sure it’s great for people with questions, but it’s even better for people with answers. The main users are people with problems, if you can solve their problems you’ve made a connection, or better yet a sale. The difference between old media and new media is the ability to reach the individual, Y! Answers is perhaps the best forum for that opportunity. You have to know what you’re talking about and you have to really give someone something that they want, but if you can do that you’ve got a better connection than you’d get from any ad.

Better still, and this is where I think Yahoo! will come in, if you see a reoccurring problem without a great answer you’ve just been handed market research for a new business. If 3000 people ask a question, then a better, more apparent, solution needs to be created. I don’t think it will be long before Yahoo creates services based on the most common questions.

The real danger with this is that it will be abused, it will become as spam ridden as a modern chat room. For now, however, it’s mainly just a great place to find anything you can’t find through Y! search or Google, and that’s more than enough.