Here’s a question for you. How many Q&A sites does the Web really need? Already, there is Yahoo Answers, WikiAnswers, Mahalo Answers, Linkedin Answers, ChaCha and dozens beyond. But Wikia (and Wikipedia) co-founder Jimmy Wales thinks there is room for one more.
We learned from a tip that he has quietly launched Wikianswers, a Question & Answer site that attempts to create one true, consensus answer for each question, wiki-style. If this sounds familiar it is because Wiki Answers, which is part of Answers.com, does the exact same thing and had 26.7 million unique visitors worldwide in December (comScore). (Yahoo Answers had 144.7 million worldwide uniques in December).
And then there is the little problem of the name. It is supposed to be Wikia Answers! (see second screenshot below), but in the current logo the last “a” of Wikia shares the first “a” of Answers, making it Wikianswers. The already established WikiAnswers might have a problem with that. (The URLs are different: http://answers.wikia.com and http://wiki.answers.com/, respectively)
Update: Wikia Gil Penchina responds in comments:
Wikianswers started at Wikia in November, 2004. The other site with the same name was called FAQFarm back then and changed their name without getting our permission.
Wikianswers is built on the same wiki platform offered by Wikia, and it is already being promoted from Wikia Search. Building up a searchable Q&A repository is a natural add-on for a search engine or any online information database. (See our post on Mahalo Answers).
But, really, How is Wikianswers different than any other Answers site? Unless Wales can satisfy that question, people will ask look for answers to their own questions elsewhere.
Update: Wikia CEO Penchina’s explains below in comments:
Wikia’s Q+A service is in keeping with the wiki-way and that’s what makes it different
- The content is freely licensed under GFDL unlike other answers sites allowing it to be re-used and re-purposed by others for free
- Anyone can contribute (other answers sites require you to register)We believe that a more open, freely licensed community will always do better than a corporate site that takes customers contributions and copyrights them in order to take rights away from the contributor.
Erick,
You said it best… “But, really, How is Wikianswers different than any other Answers site? Unless Wales can satisfy that question, people will ask look for answers to their own questions elsewhere.” Indeed, they will.
Where’s the ‘radical differentiation’ in this model?
Q&A, or Q&O (Question & Obvious)?
How about Answiki.com? lol
Wikia Nswers
I think the difficulties that Jimmy Wales is having with Wikia getting any traction in the marketplace demonstrates the fact that changing the world and becoming an successful entrepreneur are two different things.
Jimmy Wales has changed the world with Wikipedia. Unfortunately, as an entrepreneur, he still has yet to prove himself.
As I wrote in my blog
“An entrepreneur’s job is to build lasting companies that make lots of money. Period.
Sure there is nothing wrong with changing the world, or showing passion for a product, or doing what he or she loves. But at the end of the day, if that person has not built a lasting company that makes lots of money, he or she has failed as an entrepreneur.”
Anjali Sen
http://smartbabesaresexy.blogspot.com
Soooooooo will Jimmy Wales edit answers that he does not agree with like he edited the Wikipedia article about him?
Moreover, answers.com used to have some sort of relationship with Wikimedia Foundation where they used to give some money to the foundation. I don’t know if it’s still going on, but this doesn’t seem kosher.
Isn’t it a bit too late in the game now?
The link for WikiAnswers in the second sentence is messed up goes to http://answers.wikia.com rather than http://wiki.answers.com/.
This tripped me up until I finished reading the whole post and saw what the URL for Wikianswers is supposed to be. You guys need to fix that link!
Check it out What is the best search engine? http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/.....rch_engine
Trivia time:
Q: What do Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Tom Anderson of MySpace have in common?
A: They both had amateur porn sites. Jimmy had a porn search engine, and Tom had an Asian porn site.
I answered your question, Eric.
http://eleclion.wordpress.com/.....ikinswers/
Eleclion of Eleclion’s Blog.
http://www.lionblog.co.cc/
Wikianswers - WikiAnswers
sounds like a court case waiting to happen
Hi Erik,
As always, it’s nice to get coverage from my friends at Techcrunch
Wikia’s Q+A service is in keeping with the wiki-way and that’s what makes it different
- The content is freely licensed under GFDL unlike other answers sites allowing it to be re-used and re-purposed by others for free
- Anyone can contribute (other answers sites require you to register)
We believe that a more open, freely licensed community will alway do better than a corporate site that takes customers contributions and copyrights them in order to take rights away from the contributor
Wikianswers started at Wikia in November, 2004. The other site with the same name was called FAQFarm back then and changed their name without getting our permission.
In January we re-launched it with a better look and feel and contributions have exploded with over 1,000 new questions being asked or answered per day.
I believe there is room for many organizations to be successful in organizing human knowledge. Answerbag, Askville and many others are also in the space, not to mention the ones you mentioned.
Apparently the thousands of internet users piling in to the re-launched service in the last couple of weeks seem to agree that what we’re doing might be unique and interesting. See traffic stats here for details: http://www.quantcast.com/answers.wikia.com#traffic
I’ll let it get some traction, then try it out. I very much dislike that Yahoo Answers makes you register to use the service….its the only thing keeping me registered with Yahoo these days…well, that and the fact that so many people go there (to the Answers section).
I highly suggest making Wikianswers multilingual also.
Regards
While I don’t personally use any of these answer sites, I think Gil sums up the difference quite succinctly:
“a more open, freely licensed community will always do better”
Even with the monetary incentives some of them have, I’d never contribute to WikiAnswers or Mahalo for the reason that it’s too much pain on my part just to line the pockets of Answers Corporation, Yahoo, or Calacanis.
Wikia most certainly is a corporate site in the technical sense, but the GFDL makes a world of difference in my motivation to participate in anything they might do.
Take note of Gil’s response–answers many of the concerns raised, but not defensive or pushy in any way. Regardless of how you feel about Wikianswers, props to Gil for a quality company response, too rare in the TechCrunch community.
You really should know when to quit. Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. The world needed an online encyclopedia, so wikipedia was successful. The world does not need this.
This is really just about Jimmy Wales’ ego, not about giving users something they need. ‘Open, freely-licensed indeed’. People don’t look for ‘open, freely-licensed’. They look for answers to their questions, and they don’t care how they get it. Time will tell.
The differences in each of these services is negligible (with the possible exception of ChaCha).
It seems to me the larger your audience is, the higher quality your answers will be. If that is true, I imagine that only the strongest should survive over the long term.
very timely:
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea.....1232570166
(linkback) Thrive or Fail? Jimmy Wales Quietly Launches Wikianswers [VOTE] - http://www.thriveorfail.com/9756c
i thought this guy was gonna launch a Googl killer. what happened to that rant. always funny when companies to help you find stuff choose a domain name that does not help you find them.
Yes, he should definitely try making some Google Killer. Why not? Make it a ‘little different’ and it should do…
Yeah right…
…
If you really wanted to make it easy for people, you would’ve bought one (count it: ONE) domain name and used subdomains for topics like Alltop and countless others do. Someone would have to PAY ME A LOT OF MONEY for me to waste my time and type “locator” after a limited set of words (some work, most don’t) compared to using Mahalo, Kosmix, or whatever — let alone the fact that Google pulls the best results 99% of the time.
true i only need one premium property and i have that. but when you add a famlily of 1300+ channels for custom natural language location, niche email and subsite offerings there really is no competition. Gogl pulls best results? garbled flood of pages, unstructured results with ad jibbber from addense on the side? looks like a yard sale. 99% of what Googl pushes is cyberfat. what do you consider best? there is a huge hole in search and if you cant see it maybe you have not been in the industry long enough. when you innovate search youll realize that it it is more about natural language location based strategic postioning than anything else. niche location engines are the future. search is dead. location is everything. share with us your strategic position on the net. thanks for writing in, as you can see i already thought about what your saying.
StrategyLocator.com - position yourself
> “there is a huge hole in search and if you cant see it maybe you have not been in the industry long enough.”
—
I’m rather familiar with the search “industry.” Your kind of thinking reminds me of people on the sidelines in 1998 trying to get-rich-quick without a clue of what users actually want. Unfortunately for you, VCs are slightly more educated now (not all but many).
It’s hard for me to understand how you’re serious. 1300+ separate vertical “Mahalos” or “About.com’s” is not the future of anything.
As for /actual/ vertical search engines, what you seem to fail to realize is that Google is already the largest destination of good vertical search engines (Hint: take a look at the separate tabs: News, Video, Blogs, Shopping, Books, Maps/Local, Patents, etc.)
The future of search is the following:
1. Onebox: Google’s onebox getting infinitely more advanced: adding better ways to direct search (ex. Clusty), continuing the plug-in/enhancement model that they already offer (as does Yahoo BOSS), human feedback via searchwiki, and so on. Ultimately, the future = things becoming MORE integrated not dispersed across thousands of .coms.
2. Less typing of domain names, let alone randomly. Address bar used as the search engine, which is already the case with most setups for FF, IE, Chrome.
3. Searching anywhere, away from the desktop, away from PDA, and eventually via voice (ubiquitous computing).
4. Deeper content (content beyond the login), which Google is already working on.
5. Advanced searching and shaping of results. All engines suck at that right now. Ex: “give me pages only from {list of sites} that were modified between {date} and {date} and bookmarked by {X} number of people…”
6. Real NLP for searching structured data sources. What you’re referring to is not natural language in the slightest. Google already has the largest known language database on the planet based on indexing searches, relating words/meaning to each other, what people click on, etc.
7. Augmented reality + searching.
8. Much more structured data (the “dream” of the semantic web) will start increasing as it becomes easier for content providers to quickly/easily structure their own data (example: microformats built into web utilities/platforms and utilities that automate the process through analysis before you publish it, etc.). Then there’ll be more decentralized consumption of data that was once centralized + searching relationships. To a small degree, things like Freebase and Google Base have their own contained “solution” to that but that will pale in comparison to the general web.
9. Social networks and relations influencing specialized searches. Best example of such trust networks is probably in the area of goods/classifieds.
10. etc. Countless other things in the pipeline but I’ll stop there…
There’s not a “huge hole” in search in the way you think there is. That which isn’t done well or done at all by Google can be done by niche vertical engines, as is already they case (Trulia, Oodle, Pipl, Kayak, etc., etc.). Saying “search is dead” is like saying the “internet is just a fad” and makes one look wildly unknowledgeable or backed by a crazy agenda.
Sorry, but what your pushing doesn’t even make sense. What the heck does “RespondLocator” even mean? Does it mean if I were to go to “respondlocator.com” I would see web sites about help articles on how to “respond” to “something”??? Does it mean I would see “responses” (different word)? Responses to what? Does it mean I could respond to something? What? Care to explain. I don’t think you understand yourself. For your sake, and I mean this out of actual consideration, I hope you’re filthy rich and the thousand+ domain names are an expendable investment (not maxed on credit) because your strategy is failed and you need to realize this and perhaps look into either changing it or doing something else. I hate to be a dream smasher but you asked for my opinion and I’m trying to help. Good luck either way though. Maybe you’ll prove us all wrong. (But I certainly tell you no one I know would ever randomly type {word}+locator.com in the address bar when they could just type {word} or {words} to better define the intent of their search.
Wiki wants to be everywhere
The Wales v. Calacanis battle continues!
See the latest - on techcrunch here: http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/Does_TechCrunch_rule
Heads up. Jimmy himself, describes the website as Wikianswers. Not Wikia Answers.
That’s a good question: ‘How different is Wikianswers from the other Q&A websites?’ Also, the url used is quite similar and it could cause confusion among users.
Your last sentance says it all for me…
But, really, How is Wikianswers different than any other Answers site? It has Google Ads in the end. He is probably want to make money from this venture rather than giving it free.
What is wrong with “Answers OnLine”?
We can use AOL.com
After all, the domain will be available soon for $0.38 USD.
With all the answer sites out there, I think every question in the universe has indeed been answered already…
So, like with every new database driven website, I start typing in perverted stuff to test it, and the results:
http://i43.tinypic.com/50o8yf.jpg
Best question and answer I found within 20 seconds of checking out the new site:
Q - “How to build an online business?”
A - “take notes of what this site does, and do the exact opposite.”
http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/.....e_business
I’ve had good luck with LinkedIn Q&A… everything has been rubbish
Stick to the encyclopedia…don’t do it just because you can.
I’m not sure why google ever closed google answers but it sure opened the door.
Jimmy Wales….. Is this the same guy that was begging visitors to Wikipedia to send him money? I wonder if he used it to finance the Wikianswers site. Its all in the timing I guess. FAQfarm decided a few years back, change their name to WikiAnswers. They used it, marketed it and to make it more plausible, they have the “first page” hit on Google. Not Yahoo, not any of the others mentioned, (in fact, I have never heard of those others till just now!) Ok, but none the less, Wales is a liar and a conman! Corporate ownership? He is full of what makes the grass grow green! Every page you go to on his parochial site has adds and spam…..somebody is getting paid for that! On WikiAnswers, nobody owns the questions or answers. They are free to modify, edit, correct, and update the answers and questions. Now, Mr. Bigmouth is trying to funnel traffic to his ‘Dick and Jane” version of a worn out wiki engine that can be vandalized and cracked by my 6 year old son! If WikiAnswers did indeed, take and use the name with out permission, then why haven’t we heard about it in the trades, or even the nightly news? Because he would lose a legal battle, and further discredit his name and Wikipedia at the same time. (Like he could discredit his name any further after his porn search engine!) Hey, Wales get out of the polyester suits and get with the times you ignorant jerk! You’re stinking up the place!
Erick Schonfeld and TechCrunch, please research your articles a little more before publishing.
Shouldn’t the headline have read “Jimmy Wales Quietly *RE*launches Wikianswers”?
You’re becoming too tabloid, always looking for a villain. Shame.
http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/....._Duff_nude
Gosh, game of the names!
@Erick: Just noticed, the link to WikiAnswers in the second sentence is incorrect. Looks like you’re also confused.
The post from Marcel wonders if any money from the non-profit Wikipedia is magically finding its way over to the for-profit Wikia, Inc. (This would be the classic case of “self-dealing”.)
Search no more!
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pip.....49340.html
I’m the founder of FAQ Farm, which we relaunched as WikiAnswers in 2007 after I sold the business to Answers.com.
The use of “WikiAnswers” isn’t a legal issue. It was never trademarked. In fact, it can’t be trademarked because it is considered a generic term.
I registered the domain WikiAnswers.com back in 2004 or 2005, and started using that as the “tagline” for FAQ Farm in 2006. For more on the history of the site see http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:WikiAnswers
I have great, great respect for Jimmy. I’ve always admired him, even when he was doing his first Internet business. (Coincidentally, we knew each other in Chicago. Jim and his partner Tim sublet space from the non-profit org I was running at the time.) This all surprises me. It seems beneath him.
Maybe Wales stole the name and the Q&A concept his company burned burning through all that vc money. http://valleywag.gawker.com/50.....t-of-staff
I also find it funny that a site that was created in 2004 is only now getting any attention. I note that Penchina cites the “thousands” of new visitors and questions being asked, as a measure of future success.
Anybody remember Openserving.com? That Wikia-spawned site supposedly had thousands of interested parties inquiring pre-launch. What happened to Openserving.com, Gil? Jimbo? Anyone?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenServing
Chris Whitten has “great, great respect” for Jimmy Wales?
Why?
http://www.mywikibiz.com/Criticism_of_Jimmy_Wales
I created Wikianswers. This was my idea… I am not getting credit for this. This was way before Yahoo! Answers was launched.
Evidence: http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/.....s/Hemanshu
created by me in November 2004. I cannot prove it but Wikia may have sold my idea to Yahoo! even.
Seems to me that having multiple iterations of the same concept simply ensures that one will eventually competitively win out. Confusing and unhelpful in the short term, better for everyone in the long term.
If you have a question, just ask our search engine AAfter . It is a KISS.
Q&A sites tend to have a lot of Google juice and are highly monetizable because a person asking a question is goal-oriented. These sites don’t have to be destination sites at all. I think we could see an explosion of them. Cheap to produce once it’s up and running on its own.
This is another good project. But will this really click?
Let the market decide how many of what and which stands the test of time. Should there be no competition to Techcrunch?
Most of the web and chatter that comes with it is useless anyways.
will surely check out the site
“Anyone can contribute (other answers sites require you to register)”
that is not true there are loads of other sites such as MaybeNow.com allow you to answer, contribute and involve in discussions all without logging in. it’s not how many question answer sites you can have in the market because the next trend forming is based on being able to find answers to your questions and there will be loads of new sites that will hit the cyber world. if you look at unanswered questions on yahoo answers, or any other related sites; there are more unanswered questions than the ones with an answer. I don’t call providing irrelevant answers as an answered question.
If there are millions of unanswered questions; supply and demand suggests, there is more demand less supply in the market currently.
Bob Rosenschein, CEO of Answers Corporation (owners of reference site Answers.com and Q&A site WikiAnswers.com) had this to say regarding Wikia’s site with the same name - - See http://www.nostupidanswers.com.....-straight/ ;
Full Text below:
WikiAnswers: Setting the Record Straight
We are admirers of Jimmy Wales but must set the record straight about the recent statement on Wikia’s site that he is the “founder of Wikianswers”.
Wikia’s Answers category is indeed one of thousands of wikis on its site, right between Ansible and Anthony Trollope. It started in November 2004 and had almost no activity for the past four years.
By August 2007, the site had a total of 17 answers. By their launch last week, there were about 1,000. The site remains very small, despite their seeding thousands of unanswered questions last week.
In June of 2004, an entrepreneur named Chris Whitten bought the domain http://www.wikianswers.com. He pointed it to his user-generated Q&A site, then known as FAQ Farm. A vibrant community of passionate contributors formed and did a fantastic job answering questions.
By the time Chris sold FAQ Farm and wikianswers.com to us in November 2006, the site already had 280,000 questions and 200,000 answers. Shortly thereafter, we re-named the product WikiAnswers.
True to Chris’ vision, our goal is to create the world’s greatest question and answer site. We are well on our way, and the numbers tell the story best: over 8,000,000 questions (35,000 new ones every day); over 3,000,000 answers (10,000 new every day); 16.5 million unique US visitors in December, according to comScore; over 2 million registered users; and over 500 volunteer supervisors.
We do agree with Gil Penchina, CEO of Wikia Inc., that “there is room for many organizations to be successful in organizing human knowledge.” However, Wikia is creating market confusion by associating its Q&A category with our market-leading WikiAnswers domain and site.
I would like to thank WikiAnswers founder Chris Whitten and the community that he started for their wonderful efforts building WikiAnswers. We have much to be proud of. According to comScore, by percentage growth,WikiAnswers.com was the fastest growing top 200 US domain for all of 2008