What can Google Answers do to become more successful?   
 
Clearly, there's a cadre of wonderfully dedicated answerers, and an 
(apparently) growing number of internet users aware of the Google 
Answers service, but the overall volume of questions being asked is 
not growing very rapidly.  I'm a huge fan of what Google Answers has 
accomplished thus far, and would like to see it move out of beta and 
become a solid and permanent feature.  How can Google best make this 
happen? 
 
Some ideas I've had are: 
 
1.  Advertise.  It's time to alert the broader public to the 
availability of this wonderful service. 
 
2.  Speak up.  Give Google Answers greater prominence on the Google 
web site itself. 
 
3.  Raise the maximum.  Let people ask really high-price questions for 
which they would expect (and get) first rate expert answers from 
Google "consultants".  A lot of the questions (e.g. what's the size of 
the market for....?) could be answered with enough effort, and access 
to fee-based reports, but few researchers are willing make the effort 
and incur the costs needed to go the distance on these, even when the 
question is posted at the $200 maximum.  For $1,000, though... 
 
4.  Diversify.  Canvass the Answerers to see what languages are spoken 
other than English, and, where there is a sizable pool of non-English 
speakers, invite questions in these languages as well, especially by 
making use of the Google sites in other countries. 
 
5.  PR.  Sure, there have been articles in tech magazines and the like 
about Google Answers, but where's the mainstream buzz?  This is the 
coolest thing on the internet in quite some time.  it should be a 
featured story in Time magazine, USA Today, CNN, etc.  Get those press 
people to work! 
 
 
So, my question is...what other good ideas do folks have for pumping 
up the volume here.  Any thoughtful idea will constitute an acceptable 
answer.  And even when an answer is given, I hope people will add 
ideas through the comment process.

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Clarification of Question by davidsar-ga on 17 Aug 2002 14:27 PDT

I'd like folks to have a chance to comment on, as well as answer, this
question, while it's still fairly "fresh".  So please don't lock it
for overly long.  Much obliged.

Dave

Hello David,

First and foremost, to become an even better Google thing, we need to
stomp all the bugs out.  That's why the project is still in Beta - to
push all the buttons and see what breaks so we know how to fix them if
they break later, to figure out what works, what doesn't, and what
could work with a little tweaking.

That takes time, and from what I've observed, Google doesn't like to
let things out of Beta until they're satisfied that it's perfect. 
Take Google Groups, for instance.  When Google bought the database
from the former Deja, it was a wreck - nightmarish to navigate, half
the time searches turned up nothing, the interface was awful.  Groups
stayed in Beta for a very long time, a year or more if I remember
correctly, and now they're perfect.

It would seem that patience is the first key to making sure that
Google Answers becomes and remains a thriving, active part of Google
as a whole.

In the meantime, let me address the ideas you've had before I offer my
own:

Examples 1 and 2, dealing with advertising and prominence on the main
Google page: Google is advertising, albeit in a very tasteful,
unintrusive manner.

Let's play with Google for a minute.  Did you know that some of our
customers use "natural language" queries to search?  They do!  And
when they do, they get a little pointer to Google Answers (my son
suggested this query):

Query: "What is electricity?"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22What+is+electricity%3F%22

Users greeted with no matches are also quietly directed to Google
Answers (query from an abbreviation a customer was trying to identify
the other night):

Query: RAMPUR-BUFF-RMSPUR
://www.google.com/search?q=RAMPUR-BUFF-RMSPUR&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=n&oq=RMAPUR-BUFF-RMSPUR

The publicity is there, it's just quiet, and with good reason.  Before
the whole world gets let in on the project, shouldn't we be certain
that the equipment, staff and Researchers can handle the traffic? 
Building slowly and steadily is better in the long run than rapidly
and in an uncontrolled manner.

Items 3 and 4, while certainly very good ideas, are probably not
appropriate for a Beta period.  Remember, this project is only a few
months old - it only just launched at the end of April!  Too many new
things, too quickly, would not benefit the project.  Again, patience. 
It would be great to see these things once the project is out of Beta
and humming merrily along.

The 5th on your list, Mainstream PR:  While the site hasn't been
written up in Time or Newsweek or splashed on CNN just yet, it doesn't
mean that the mainstream media isn't interested.  They're watching us
- witness the reporter here recently asking Researchers and users to
contact him because he was writing about the service.  They've got
their eyes on us, it's only a matter of time before one of them agrees
that yes, this *is* the coolest thing since ICQ, and writes us up in a
national publication.  When that happens, expect this place to be
hopping - and we'd better be ready to handle it.  Patience is key
here, too, while a solid foundation of Researchers and Policy is being
built.

And for my own ideas...

Start small.  Every Researcher and every user has the power to help
boost question volume.  You've asked questions - but have you told
your friends about the service?  Have they told their friends?  Have
they used it?  I can point to several questions that have been asked
here by either my friends and family (or their friends) because I've
recommended that they give the service a try.

This one, for instance, was asked by the friend of a close friend of
mine, who was told "Try Google Answers.  Missy says the Researchers
are great!":

Swarming attacks in games 
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=47837

It looks like Blader had a terrific time researching the question, and
the customer was thrilled.  Tell your friends.  Tell your mom.  Tell
your mailman.  Put a link in your web page.  Word of mouth works!

A "What's New" section on the GA front page might be helpful, to keep
customers interested and informed.  For example, letting our customers
know when a new layout or feature was implemented (such as when
"Search and Browse" became available), or to announce a new feature
coming soon.  Make them aware that the site is always growing and
changing, and they'll keep coming back to see how.

One of our customers dropped a note to say hello the other day, and in
conversation suggested that bio clips of Researchers be available, or
perhaps a brief write-up about the current Researcher of the Week.  I
think this is a wonderful idea, too.  I don't know about you, but I'm
always happy to see an business that takes a minute to thank its
contributors out where the customer can see it.  I'm more willing to
do business with a company that tells me that the people working for
them are appreciated.  Not to mention, letting the customers know just
a little bit about the people working for them helps to build a better
business/client relationship - it makes them feel more comfortable
with us and plants the seeds of trust between the customer and the
Researcher.

These are just a few ideas.  I'm sure other Researchers and users have
even more ideas for you to mull over, so I'll leave a bit open to them
to add their two bits as well.

Of course, if there's something you'd like me to expand upon or
clarify, don't hesitate to ask!


--Missy

---

Clarification of Answer by missy-ga on 17 Aug 2002 14:30 PDT

Mmpf.  My apologies for the typo up there.  I'm wearing my brace
today, and it seems to encourage extra keystrokes!

--M

Missy,

Wonderful answer, as always (and not the first time you've cautioned
me to be patient...if only I had listened!).  My only real concern is
Google's patience...will they continue to support a service that is
expensive for them to operate, and only brings them a few hundred
bucks a day in income.  Let's hope so.

Any others care to add a thought or two...?

I like the question, and I like the answer, too. What I would further
like, is for people to stop abusing the service--and the idea behind
it--in attempts to get their homework/term papers/whatever done for
them. Is there any way of filtering this stuff out? Is there any way
of blacklisting these users? Or should I ask for a "Google Answer" to
this ...

Missy is right on target but I want to comment specifically on item
#3.

Raising the limit will probably never be very appropriate for two main
reasons I can think of.

First, businesses and people with $1,000 to spend on an answer are not
going to be very interested in tossing the question out for public
view and to a pool of totally unknown researchers.  Although we are
all tested and approved by Google, that’s as general researchers and
no one will be spending big money to get a researcher at random.
That’s what private online research is for.  In fact, I sometimes
doubt if we need to go much above $100 but I don’t have any
theoretical problem with a higher limit, I just don’t think it will
work.

Second, no PROFESSIONAL will spend the days needed to answer big money
questions without some guarantee of payment.  To spend several days
trying to keep a question locked and then loose out to someone else
minutes before posting a $1,000 answer just isn’t something a
professional would do and who would trust that sort of question to an
amateur? The change to a two hour lock was an excellent move, although
I would like to see some mechanism to lengthen the lock for
higher-paid questions, even thought this might lock me out of some –
at least it wouldn’t waste my time. Since we can be removed by Google
if we don’t live up to both the written standards and the general
sense of fair-play we all want to see here, I don’t see any problem
with making the lock, say 4 hours for a $100 question and perhaps 8
hours for a $200 question. If a researcher abuses the lock they can be
reprimanded or terminated.

As for all the comments about advertising, expanding, and moving out
of Beta, I’ve seen many more businesses fail from moving too quickly
than from moving too slowly. We’re still in Beta and I think we need
to stay here for a while longer because we are still making important
adjustments. So far I haven’t seen any lack of questions available for
researchers to tackle.

I have very mixed feelings about the homework, term paper comment. I
personally don’t answer those but I’m not convinced they should be
eliminated. After all, isn’t the Internet a legitimate way to conduct
research? Don’t students regularly query librarians for guidance? Some
courses are actually designed to teach research skills and that
includes knowing when to ask experts. I would not want to see students
quoting the entire answer, although those who do will get what they
deserve – i.e., a poor education. But as a double check, or a quick
and dirty guide to finding the facts, I don’t see a major problem.  If
you don’t want to take those questions, do as I do and skip over them.

I saw a story about google answer in the Wall Street Journal this week!

*grin*

We're pretty pleased with that.  My kids took the article to school.

--Missy