DEMO: Answers.com adds wiki features to its Q&A service
The new version of question-and-answer site Answers.com tries to bridge the worlds of professional reference works and user-generated content. It combines more than 250 licensed reference source with community, discussion and a user-edited database of more than 5 million answers. Anyone can answer, edit, or collaborate on answers in thousands of categories.
The team demonstrated the new site on stage at this week’s DEMOfall 09, the technology conference co-produced by VentureBeat. The interface was pretty straightforward. There was no answer for the question “Do you ‘twitter’ or ‘tweet’?” so it was easy to create an answer for the question. (It’s “tweet,” obviously.) Anyone who has used Wikipedia should be familiar with the general format. The difference between this and Wikipedia is the question-and-answer format and the integration of traditional reference material.
Answers.com also launched Spanish, French, Italian, and German versions.http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/980795693
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About the Author, Anthony Ha
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
