Answers.com Grows Content With WikiAnswers(TM)
Answers.com’s Community-Based Q&A Site Supplements Reference Library of Four Million Topics
NEW YORK, February 20/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Answers Corporation (NASDAQ: ANSW), creator of Answers.com(TM), has completed the first stage of integrating content from its latest acquisition, community-based WikiAnswers(TM) (formerly FAQ Farm(TM)), supplementing its already substantial and growing collection of reference content.
Distinct from other community Question & Answer (Q&A) sites, where answers are voted on but not improved, the content on WikiAnswers is an ongoing collaboration of shared knowledge, using the “wiki” methodology best known for its use on Wikipedia: The quality and coverage of answers is upgraded and improved over time by the community, under the direction of category supervisors. The result is a permanent, multidisciplinary, high-quality archive for people who have similar questions or interests.
“On other Q&A sites, similar questions get asked over and over again, and the answers can’t be improved upon when they contain mistakes,” says WikiAnswers founder, Chris Whitten, now Answers.com’s Director of WikiAnswers. “On WikiAnswers, however, we merge duplicate questions together and then grow them with collaboration, so that good answers become great answers over time.”
Answers.com currently offers its visitors free access to comprehensive content on four million topics, drawn from over 120 trusted encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses and other sources. On Answers.com, for example, someone interested in personal finance might want to look up a topic like FICO scores (http://www.answers.com/topic/credit-score). But what if you’re specifically seeking information on how to repair your credit history? Just pose the question to the community and you’ll either receive an existing answer or your question will go into the list of unanswered questions to which the community will respond. In fact, thus far there have been 27 improvements made to the “How do you repair bad credit?” WikiAnswer (found at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_repair_bad_credit).
WikiAnswers can be accessed directly at http://wiki.answers.com, where visitors can submit questions, offer answers or peruse existing answers. In addition, over 200,000 of the higher-quality answers have now become part of the Answers.com content library; they can be accessed directly at www.answers.com by posing a question.
“The integration of WikiAnswers is the next stage in our mission to become the leading online answer provider, whether answers come from our existing library of licensed, branded, attributable reference titles; from the Web; or now from a community of experts or interested participants,” explained Bob Rosenschein, CEO of Answers.com.
While the integrity of information on any community-based site is subject to scrutiny, Whitten explains that, as a whole, the community of editors on WikiAnswers is a group of professionals, enthusiasts and helpful citizens that want to see the dissemination of accurate facts on their pet topics. “Over time, the mistakes, fluff and duplicate information that you find on other Q&A sites is eliminated and you are left with the best answer possible from individuals who care enough to take the time,” adds Whitten. “As WikiAnswers grows alongside Answers.com, we expect to break new ground in establishing exciting new paradigms in information communication. Technology and traditional content sources can provide fast and reliable answers, but people will always need the help of other people.”
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