Top 5 Websites to ask Questions and get Answers

Posted by admin | Posted in Internet, Tips & Tricks | Posted on 04-08-2009 | Views: 168

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Top 5 Websites to ask Questions and get Answers

Finding right answers to some questions is not so easy. Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo do help to an extent, but might not come up with the exact information you are looking for. Sometimes the best answers come from humans and this is why many websites which build up a community around users to let them interact and share their knowledge have sprung up. Here is a list of such top five
websites where
users can help others and also themselves by asking and answering questions.

1. Yahoo Answers

Undeniably this is the best and most popular place for questions and answers. Featuring more than 25 categories and available in many languages, Yahoo Answers is the first place to look for an answer. Any one can register to become a member. Each answer gets you some points while asking a question would strip down your total points.

Answers marked as Best Answers by other users get much higher points and there is a fierce competition amongst answerers to
build up points and go up in levels.
Yahoo Answers
does not require any registration to browse and find
questions and answers. However you will have to sign up if you want to
ask a question or answer one yourself.

2. AnswerBag

While
Yahoo Answers is good to find answers, it does not have any system in place to remove duplicate questions; so sifting through all the redundant questions to find the right one with an answer is difficult. Also questions are closed after an answer is voted as the right one, so sometimes the answers already given are not the best ones. AnswerBag claims to have solves these two problems in it’s interface.

Apart from all the general categories, AnswerBag gives quick and easy access to Social, Expert, Local and Shopping
questions and answers. Based on a point and voting system, AnswerBag has a wall of fame similar to Yahoo where it displays the top contributors and awards them with badges and titles. Unlike Yahoo, AnswerBag rewards questions, which are inquisitive and thought-provoking. You can find answers to existing questions without any registration.

3. WikiAnswers

WikiAnswers is the
community driven wing of Answers.com which aims to provide a viable platform for people’s collective
knowledge. You can browse and find answers without signing up. WikiAnswers also lets you share and bookmark any answers on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook etc. You can either search entire WikiAnswers to find answers from members as well as it’s reference library or just one of the places.

Users are encouraged to participate more through a system of trust points and contribution badges displayed on their profiles.

4. Blurtit

Blurtit is yet another
community driven
knowledge sharing site. It is very similar to
Yahoo Answers and AnswerBag in encouraging users to participate more by appreciating their contributions via rankings and points. However Blurtit is different in that it lets users participate anonymously requiring no registration. There is a 20 word limit on questions and an emphasis on the content of the answer and it’s originality.

Blurtit gives a social twist to
knowledge sharing. You can send a question to Blurtit (@blurtit) via Twitter and Blurit will publish it online and send you a message each time your question gets answered. Blurtit also lets you search the web from it’s interface. You can search Google, Wikipedia and Ask.

5. Aardvark

Aardvark forms a
community around instant messaging to get answers to your questions. Aardvark works on Gmail Chat, Google Talk, AIM, iChat, MSN Messenger, Windows Live, Hotmail, Twitter and any email application which supports instant messaging.

Aardvark lets you use your social connections to the maximum by networking deeper and deeper to find answers. Asking a question is simple; type it into your chat client. Aardvark propagates the question to everyone in your network who has opted to contribute on that topic. Answers by these real people in their IMs are then sent back to you. You can always resend the question if you didn’t get the right answer the first time. Hopefully some one with the right answer is now logged into his/her Instant Messenger!

Aardvark promises to bring answers to you within 20 minutes. It tells you how many people were contacted with the question and how long it actually took to get the answer. You can just pose a question to Aardvark and go on with your work. There is no software installation required to start using Aardvark. After registering for free, the service is available as a contact from your IM which is always ready to get your messages. You can connect Aardvark to your Facebook or other social accounts. You can also integrate Aardvark with your Twitter account if you prefer to tweet your questions rather than IM them.

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