August 16, 2010 – The web is getting bigger and bigger every day. To many, this sounds like a good thing. To others, this creates a problem. As the information makes its way online, it is getting harder every day to find the answer to a specific question. Seizing on this quandary, Facebook and Ask.com are getting involved in the answer process.
Information Today’s recent article “Facebook Questions & Ask.com: Cashing in on Mass Ignorance” discusses their “not so new” approaches.
Back in 2008 Search Wikia launched a social-network powered search engine. The launch was short lived and really did not go anywhere. Facebook is picking up where Search Wikia left off, hoping that loyal friends will be the search engine within the network. Even if people are not loyal to Facebook, they are indeed loyal to their friends.
Ask.com takes a different approach. By lacking a network of ‘friends’ to query, their network incorporates a history of questions asked by you. Being an answer aggregator, rather than an answer generator, may be enough to keep them in the game. Even with the semantic web evolving, it doesn’t replace personal interaction.
Glenn Black
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
