It’s my Fault Google Answers is Being Shelved
Well it’s official, Google Answers will stop accepting questions later this week and instead remain as a static archive.
This is where I shall confess. It’s all my fault. At least for a little while longer, I am a GAR: a Google Answers Researcher. I became a GAR early enough that I received a nice Google Fleece Blanket for Christmas as a present to all researchers as we celebrated our first Christmas. I love it still.
My blog post title is of course a sensationalist heading. But I can’t help but feel I contributed to this decision because I was an infrequent Researcher. Now, when I did my job, I did it well. I have a perfect 5 star rating and was lucky enough to get tips. But… I answered less than 50 questions all this time. Keep in mind, I did attempt to answer many questions but was beaten to it or found my research was insufficient so did not post an Answer. Also, Google did not require us to answer any specific number of questions, once we passed our test (yes, there was a test involved) and they approved our application, we were a researcher and did not have a quota. Of course, the more questions you answered the more money you could make. But personally I found it started to feel too much like real work and less like doing research for fun and to help folks.
So… I stopped looking at questions. Now, there are many Researchers who do a lot of answers, pinkfreud-ga is one (and a kind soul to boot). But I know there were others like me out there. Might what was lacking for us have also contributed to what was lacking for people who asked questions? I answer questions elsewhere on the web, for free. Why? Because I got paid with community goodwill, and sometimes, I’ll admit, to “one up” someone and “strike a blow for female geeks” as the case may be. When answering Google Answers questions I was, of course, not trying to one up someone but give them a good answer and follow the guidelines set by Google. Feedback was usually small, after all, the person asking the question “paid” for a response and so they would drift away with their answer, usually not to be seen from again.
The introduction of the tip system helped a bit. It was a more personal way to let a Researcher know that we had done well and inevitably the questioner included a little note along with the tip in the comment section. Here then was a sense of the community payback I was used to.
As I reported in this blog, I actually visited Google just two months ago. I was visiting a friend but had also sent a late email (as in I thought to send it that same day) to the Google Answers person to see if they had free time to meet. I did receive a reply but a little too late to do any planning. If I had met said person I would have mentioned what I am writing here, and I wonder if I would have gotten advance notice of this impending announcement. Perhaps, though I do not feel entitled to it, since I was a ghost of a researcher for months.
At any rate, “Goodbye Google Answers, I served you well but infrequently. May your archives live long and be browsed by future generations.”
Technorati Tags:
google, google answers, web2.0
November 29th, 2006 at 3:00 am
Fricka,
I loved reading your post. GA was a noble experiment, and I would guess that one of the reasons it was stopped is because other models for Q&A have surfaced, models which - while having their own set of pros and cons - have proven to be more scalable and effective over all. I also have another guess, but I will keep the second guess for myself
I would like to invite you to join the community over at Yedda (http://yedda.com). It’d be wonderful to see you sharing your knowledge and helping folks with their questions at Yedda.
One of the things that we put a lot of energy on is making sure that Yedda works well for answerers. You don’t need to hunt down for the questions you’d like to answer (or capture them on the question board etc) - instead, you define your topics of interests and knowledge, how many questions you’d like to get and how often, and that’s it - Yedda will deliver to you personal invitations to questions matching your personal profile.
I’d love to hear what you think of Yedda.
November 29th, 2006 at 7:25 am
Google puts brakes on Google Answers…
The Google blog will be saying “no more questions” to Google Answers:
Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time — and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product. …