Yahoo! Answers to the UK

 

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Posted on 5 Sep 2006 at 10:39

As predicted, the popular Yahoo! Answers site has launched in the UK. The site has now officially appeared following its runaway success since it debuted in the US at the end of last year.

The site is a combination of social networking and blogging that allows visitors to pose any question no matter how mundane or bizarre which can be answered by anyone else.

The site seems to have struck a chord with the smart alecs and the opinionated on the Net. According to Internet market research analysts Comscore the US version of Yahoo Answers has become the second most popular Internet reference site after Wikipedia.

In June, Yahoo! Answers pulled in around 12.3 million unique visitors and since the site went live in December, more than 30 million answers have been posted. In addition, other visitors can vote as to whether a question was good or bad. There are said to be plans for people to rate the answers too.

As well as putting links to Answers from most of its other properties, Yahoo! has sought to boost the profile of the site by getting the likes of Stephen Hawking and Bono to ask questions. Following such illustrious company the UK site has kicked off with a question by....Jonathon Ross who asks 'If mankind wipes itself out, what species will become the dominant life form, and why?' The answer of course being, 'Please God, anyone but Ross or his descendants'.

The site itself is free although it is supported by advertising. Although the ads are low key, Yahoo! is looking at ways of making money from the traffic from both text and graphical ads.

You can find answers at Yahoo! UK.

Author: Steve Malone