Yahoo Answers

[PhilDernerJr]

So I saw this ad for Yahoo Answers. IT is a site where you post a question, and other users post replies to it and you get emails with answers. It sounds cool for things that you can't find on search engines.

In the ad, I saw a sample question "How can I be an environmentalist without being a hippie?" I found it interesting enough, so I went to the site and typed in that quiestion.

It turns out that the sample question doesn't even have an answer in there.

Then I looked at a question that someone posted to maybe offer some answers. Someone asked how much 4,00 Euros is in US dollars. I went to a currency converter and learned that it was $5.40. So I posted the answer.

I then looked at all of the other answers for that question. Big shock....everyone had different answers, some of which had to be intentionally misleading to people.

Conclusion: This site sucks and is a waste. It looks like it has potential, but its batting percentage is low.

[RDU-JFK]

I check out the site all the time and it's neat. I mostly answer questions, mostly about NYC. I've typed in questions like what's the best way to clean a hat and stuff. It's also pretty good to get recipes and stuff.

Of course lots of the answers are crap but it's cool to get some offbeat answers to questions.

This morning someone asked about the uses of lemon juice and I saw a bunch of responses that were pretty cool.

[pgengler]

I like a similar, but (IMO) better site: Ask Metafilter. It's free to read, but a lifetime membership for the site (which includes plain old MeFi) is needed to post or comment and costs $5. I like it because I think it has a better signal-to-noise ratio than Yahoo Answers and the average IQ seems quite a bit higher.

[nwafan20]

Yeah, I have used Yahoo answers a bit, mostly for answering questions.. Some people are just stupid. One question was "How fast does a commercial airplane fly" Someone answered 5,000 MPH.... Wow, idiot.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Then I looked at a question that someone posted to maybe offer some answers. Someone asked how much 4,00 Euros is in US dollars. I went to a currency converter and learned that it was $5.40. So I posted the answer.

I then looked at all of the other answers for that question. Big shock....everyone had different answers, some of which had to be intentionally misleading to people.

Doesn't the exchange rate constantly change? This may be why there were so many different answers.

Yahoo answers is useful for some stuff, but worthless for most other stuff. It's mainly other people, who probably don't know what they're talking about, making it sound like they do.

[PhilDernerJr]

It doesn't change THAT much. People were saying everywhere from $3 to $7.