Hi, luxem-ga,
Being objective is the easy part! As a researcher, I'm not an employee
of Google, but rather a contractor.
The hard part is that given the nature of the web, this cannot be
considered an inclusive, nor an exhaustive list. There may be other
sites out there coming online any moment, and others dropping off. As
well, there are bulletin boards and communities and usenet groups and
mailing lists and more all over the web that have a Q&A format, and
making a tally of them would be beyond the scope of this answer. I
also didn't include sites that allow you to ask questions but the
answers are submitted to you off-site, nor sites that may have the
same format but are neglected, half-finished, et cetera.
However, here are some of the sites that allow for a Q&A format as a
service where the answers remain online:
1. General
http://answers.google.com (right here)
http://www.allexperts.com/ (from about.com)
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/ (from yahoo.com)
Ask a Question: http://www.lrc.gmcc.ab.ca/research/ask/ (Canadian
Universities and Libraries)
http://www.madsci.org/submit.html
http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/ (South Africa)
http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/askapediatrician/ (from about.com --
there is something like this for almost every major section of
about.com)
http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/intro/forms/askaq.html
2. Librarian or Library Sites **
http://www.ask-a-librarian.org.uk/ (which you are aware of)
http://ask.nypl.org/ (from nypl.org)
Illinois Library Gateway: http://gateway.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/qb/
** A number of library sites have areas where you can ask the
librarian, however this is a private (free) service for patrons only,
and is answered via email or phone. That seems to be the norm for more
library sites.
3. Q&A Site Portals (each has links to many other Q&A sites, where the
information is for specific areas and is part of their content)
Physics Van: http://van.hep.uiuc.edu/van/links-QA.htm
Virtual Reference Desk: http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.shtml
The conclusion is that Google Answers is not the only Q&A site, but it
is unique in that it varies in scope, cost and availability from some
of the other similar services, and seems to be unique in function as
well, from my observation.
------------------
- Financial Q&A: -
------------------
Credibility in the financial world is touted by everyone, but not
everyone follows through. The Financial Executives International
organization ( http://www.fei.org/rf/library/libraryform.cfm
based in New Jersey, USA) has a Q&A set up that's a little different;
you can ask them specific questions, or browse through their
researchers' list of online references for yourself. It is linked in a
number of trustworthy publications (see
://www.google.com/search?link:www.fei.org/ for sites that link to
theirs), which gives it credibility.
That said, I would personally use http://www.motleyfool.com/ as it has
made a name for itself as having sensible, down to earth financial
advice, and has active discussion boards. While not a typical Q&A
situation, it has an excellent web and offline reputation. A
sub-answer for your sub-question. ;)
------------------------
- GOOGLE SEARCH TERMS: -
------------------------
ask question online
financial ask question online
link:www.fei.org
ask question online library
q&a sites
:) zerocattle-ga |
