Why do you ask?

16. Comparison C: ATL and Google Answers

Google is the most successful search site in the world. It is fast, precise and sophisticated. Most users dislike commercials, and Google has kept its interface simple and user-friendly. Google is slowly adding new services - and Google Answers (GA) - a virtual reference desk, is the most recent.

Google Answers is a virtual reference service where people indicate how much they will pay for satisfactory answers to their questions. Google refers the questions to a network of volunteer experts, who receive 75% of the money. To become a Google expert, you must send an application and indicate your skills. The users rate the quality of the answers, and "experts" that fail too often are dropped from the network.

We would call GA semi- rather than fully commercial because the sums involved are moderate - prices start at USD 2.50, because the questions tend to be quite difficult, and because the answers are detailed and involve lots of work.

Seen as a regular job, the rate of pay for a Google expert would be low. But since the whole process is transparent, personal interest and prestige is probably part of the benefit. On the open web, the experts use nick-names. But otherwise their successes and failures are visible to the world.

Google Answers is a new service. It started in April 2002, and will certainly need a couple of years to become widely known and fully established. In the summer 2002, traffic was around 60 questions a day. What we see today, is an experimental version. Formally speaking, it still in beta. But the archive already contains more than four thousand questions and answers - more than enough for studies of the content.

Table W. User situations. Google Answers and Ask The Library. Percentages.

Source: Google. One hundred questions from the period July 17-19, 2002. Ask The Library 10% sample Jan 00-May 02.

The pattern of demand at GA differs a lot from the Scandinavian services. Questions from working life are a major component, while questions from schools and colleges are rare. The difference is also one of language and attitude:

Hello, this isnt really a question but merely a request that you MAY - be able to help me with..... - I'm looking for a listing of company's that I can contact that will be- able to provide me with cotton thread (as in sewing) that is silk - finished. I need commercial producers that are able to provide me - with large amounts of this thread. I'm not interested in some HICK - sewing place that can send me a few spools of thread for granny's - sewing machine. I want lots and lots of thread, like 3000m of thread.- - So I want from you guys, a list of commercial thread producers that - carry large quantities of cotton (silk finished) thread. The bigger - the list of contacts the better. Contact me at: xxx@yyy if the ten bucks I offered is not enough, I need answers soon!!!!

Google Answers classifies all questions into ten major and 78 smaller categories. The percentage distribution (Table X) confirms the results from Table W. The topical categories in Table X - computers, business and money, art and entertainment, etc. - do not correspond perfectly with the user situations in Table W. But most of the questions on computers, which are quite technical in nature, and nearly all questions on business and money, relate to the sphere of work.

The distribution between user groups and topics will change as GA becomes more established. Innovation processes follow typical stages. Early adopters are different from those that join the bandwagon later on.

Table X. Google Answers. Question by category. April-July 2002. Percentages.

Source: Goggle Answers. The archive contained about 4.600 questions on July 22, 2002.

The whole WWW, we might say, started as a playing ground for computer enthusiasts. In the mid-nineties, many worried articles were written about the absence of girls, women, seniors, and non-English speakers on the web. As WWW gradually became a normal part of modern life, the worries and the articles disappeared.

I suspect the same thing will happen with GA. Biologists say that ontogenesis repeats phylogenesis. When a baby grows in the womb, it repeats the evolutionary ascent from fish to primate. In the same way, the ontogenesis of a new web service repeats the phylogenesis of the web as a whole. First the nerds, and then the multitude.

It is therefore a bit early to start explaining the differences. Web based reference is still at an early stage. Different providers - libraries, publishers, educational institutions, private firms - are trying out different models of service and financing.

At the moment, GA is primarily a US undertaking. But it has clearly an international potential. Google is one of the major actors in the field of reference and information retrieval. If this particular model suceeds in North America, I expect similar initiatives in Europe.

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