To Answer Your Question
June 12th 2008, Posted in Answers SearchJust to show everyone I'm not a Google fan boy, I've developed a new web service based upon the Yahoo! Answers API. This little gem is really something. Yahoo! Answers Service is a great resource for those in two minds. You can almost think of the Yahoo! Answers as a more helpfull Wikipedia. Where Wikipedia explains the inner most workings of the String Theory, Yahoo! Answers gives you opinions on whether Peanutbutter with Cheese will work on Toast. This is not to say Yahoo! Answers isn't the place for intellectual questions, it just shows how diverse the questions can be.
I suppose you can't really compare Wikipedia with Yahoo! Answers, but I feel Yahoo! Answers really has a place up with there with the elite information repositories. The idea builds upon a community based consortium, where the trade is intellectual knowledge. Whether it be helpful or not.
The process is pretty simple, you post a question, people respond with answers or opinions they feel are correct. The questioner can then decide on a best answer if someone has answered to their satisfaction. Otherwise, the question remains open for others to add their input. The process is fast, and for the most part works well.
We've provided a very basic Answer Search which utilises the Yahoo! Answers API. This allows our users to search for questions and view the answers. Of cause, no international bandwidth is required, so capped users don't have to miss out! I have some great ideas for this API, so keep an eye on our blog.
To end off, I must say the Yahoo! APIs availible have really grown into a great resource for developers, and you will definitly see more services based upon them.
Enjoy!
