Taking a Look at Google Answers

You may not know that Google maintains a marketplace in information. This marketplace is Google Answers, or as Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page put it, an online "Question Economy." In short, as a result of Google's really cool experiment with Google Answers, you can pay to have your questions answered by researchers that are under contract with Google.

Make your bid for reliable research

Google Answers utilizes a bidding mechanism. After you pay the 50-cent listing fee, you say how much you're willing to pay for an answer to your question. You can bid anywhere between $2.00 and $200.00. You can also leave a financial tip — just as you would for great service at a restaurant — for the researcher if you really like the answer.

Google chooses its researchers carefully; these researchers really know their stuff. You can also check out the feedback that paying customers leave about researchers.

The more you are willing to pay for an answer, the more likely it is that one of these researchers will decide to answer your question. Questions worth more are also likely to get more immediate attention.

The information in Google Answers does not appear as part of the search results for a plain-vanilla Google query. You also can't access Google Answers using the Google application programming interface, or API. Google Answers is a world more or less unto itself!

So why take a look at Google Answers if you can't use it to answer "normal" Google queries and if you can't build research tools with it?

There are several good reasons for exploring Google Answers:

You can search the answers: Google Answers is a trove of information that can be searched or browsed. This info isn't searched in a regular query, so you may find it worthwhile to do a separate query in this area of the Google universe.

You can find new research leads: By looking at the results other research professionals are generating, you can learn about good sources for information that you may not have thought of.

You can study others' research methods: You can learn about how best to conduct Google research from the answers to questions posed in Google Answers.

You can get technical information quickly: Google Answers is a great, speedy alternative if you need to know the answer to a highly technical question. Consider this option if the technical answer is a small, but time-consuming, portion of your research project.

Because they receive feedback on the quality of their work, the Google Answers researchers pride themselves on coming up with good information, and they usually go out of their way to explain the steps they took to find an answer to your question — including full search queries, the logic behind the queries, and links to sites with relevant information.

In the Google Answers universe, an answer that can't be validated is not a very good answer. This makes Google Answers a great school for Google researchers in general!

Navigating to Google Answers

You have your choice of three ways to open the Google Answers application:

In your Web browser, open the URL http://answers.google.com.

From the Google home page, click the More link to open the Google Services and Tools page. Click the Answers link, represented by an icon that looks like an owl in an academic cap and gown.

Conduct a search query as you normally would. If Google can find only a few (or no) results, Google gently suggests that you try Google Answers by providing a Google Answers link on the search results page.

When you arrive at the Google Answers page, you can browse the questions and answers that are already on the page, but you must obtain a Google Answers account before you can pose your own question.