I noted some time ago that Google are not recruiting new researchers.

Are there enough Google researchers?  Browsing the questions shows
that many remain unanswered - even after a few days.

Where would I discuss this concern with like minded people?

Why  many [questions] remain unanswered ?

 Insufficient number of researchers would be one reason,
 but there are other possible reasons.
 Let's summarise the comments, for benefit of those who are wondering
 about the this issue:

 pinkfreud-ga on 27 Feb 2006 10:59 PST said (correctly)
Underpricing and unreasonable expectations are the main reason
 
 There are other reeasons:

Some answers make assumptions about the world, which 
no researcher finds plausible. Example:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=711070


bowler-ga on 27 Feb 2006 18:40 PST said:
I think it may be worthwhile for
a researcher to provide in a comment the fact that they attempted an
answer and were unsuccessful and possibly provide some guidence.
Hedgie: Indeed. 
  Some of those questions which remain unanswered, indeed are questions
 which were answered, and answer was rejected by an asker. It is now
a custom (not universal as yet] to leave a comment as a guidance for
other researchers. Example:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=440753
Sometimes such questions get answered by a different GAR, sometimes
no GAR (researcher) will consider such a question a good risk (see below).

From: thither-ga on 01 Mar 2006 21:52 PST poses some interesting
questions/comments:
" Google Answers must be very very insignificant to the overall Google
revenue stream"
  That's true. Monetary stream is negligible; there may be other benefits;
   It shows what questions are not well answered by the SearchEngine.
As search engines
   and skills of public will improve, the GA will change, but not disappear.
 Scientific journals are adding thousands of 'answers' to store of human knowledge
every month, and there are no real signs that science i.e. becoming obsolete.

From: mongolia-ga on 04 Mar 2006 16:57 PST  re:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=429179
commented on by
From: hedgie-ga on 04 Mar 2006 22:29 PST
to the end of the comments gives another, often neglected reason.
Since it may help customers, and potential customers, in formulation their
questions, and researches to answer them, I want to expand  it a bit:
This applies mostly to technical questions, often posted in physics category

It is important to respond to researchers RFCs (requests for
clarification of  a question)
and to respond in a constructive manner - to (sort of) create a
cooperative team, working
on solving a problem: 
Example
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=429179

where I said:


-------------------\

I see this is your first use of GA.
I suggest you read a couple questions/answer cases to see
how it works. Here are few of mine.

Some questions can be answered directly e.g. 
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=430559
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=427820

Some folks ask for what is not possible - and we need to know whether
a  'negative answer' -i.e. reasons for it being impossible, is of interest
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=558992

Sometimes it is not clear what asker knows and wants
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=600240


Reread the comments and RFCs to your question. 
If you answer my questions, e.g. by saying 

 'I understand that subtractive mixing does not
  have a simple formula like additive mixing. 
  You may neglect particle size effects
 and I will accept as an answer a simple approximation'
then I will answer your question.
-----------------------------------/
I like 'color' questions  and often can provide answers,
which are both 'appreciated by asker' and agree with 'color science' e.g.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=451450
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=316218 
..
In this case I actually did a fairly through search to verify that my
understanding of this issue is correct. I even had some insights.
 But I got no feedback from the asker and the $100 question went unanswered.

Some questions are clearly homework, or unethical
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=438213
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=448109

Finally, some 'questions' are not questions, but alternative theories
or gropes. These are OK, as long as asker really wants an honest opinion
example
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=433561

However, some questions just look to 'fuzzy and wild' and it is not clear if asker
want 'an answer'  - critique or evaluation - or if s/he wants to argue.
Attitude and 'civilized dialog' are important if you really want answer.
example of question unlikely to get an answer.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=707868

For me, and it may be influenced by type of questions I tend to answer,
attitude of the asker is very important. Sometimes 
example
http://answers.google.com/answers/search?q=buffycat&qtype=all&btnG=Google+Search
it looks like asker is promoting a theory, rather then asking a question. In cases
where it is not clear, I do look at asker's history, and see what his/her reaction 
was to other answers in the past and what  ratings were given to past answers. 

Where there is a real question, questions which can be answered, and
answered for a reasonable reward, chances are very good that it will
be answered,
 in my (possibly biased) opinion.

It would seem that you can discuss it right here, in the comments section.

However, I certainly don't equate the number of unanswered questions
with a shortage of researchers.  There are many reasons that a
question (like this one) may go unanswered.

In general, any well-focused, reasonably-priced question will get answered.

Just my two cents...

pafalafa-ga

Like Pafalafa-ga, I wouldn't equate the number of unanswered questions
with the number of Researchers. Unfortunately (and I think that it
happens to many), more often than not I cannot find appropriate
questions to answer. They are either underpriced for the amount of
work they require; or that the question is unanswerable; or that it is
already locked by another Researcher (perhpas, there are "too many"
Researchers?).

If you'd have a closer look at the unanswered question, you'd find
that most of them are either $2-5 questions; or that they require
market research of the type that usually costs thousands of dollars.

I would add that not just a few but many questions are answered in the
comments, often by Researchers, often then with an undocumented answer
that is wholy satisfactory  - apparently, since the asker then closes
the question.

Some very interesting questions are unanswerable.  And some, like this
one, perhaps could be answered  - as Pafalafa has already done: 
"right here", but the answer hardly counts as one and doesn't get
posted as such.

murunbuchstansinger-ga, 

We are in the same boat. 

This has been discussed in several questions before. See for example: 

Subject: I want to be a Answer Giver 
Question ID: 538730

Subject: Why Are So Many Questioners On Google Answers Such Utter Cheapskates? 
Question ID: 535653  

Also of some background interest are: 

Subject: Researchers, Researchers, Where have all the Researchers gone? 
Question ID: 439765 
(still ongoing) 

Subject: Over 1,000 Comments, please! 
Question ID: 161982 

Some GA Researchers (but not many - why so few?) have been interviewed
and the results can be found at
http://blog.outer-court.com/search.php?q=Google+Answers+Researcher+Interview

I think the basic fact is that the top GA Researchers are plentiful
and brilliant enough to show how amazing Google and the Internet are.
This is the real purpose of the GA project, not to answer every
question.

Videoga

PS Have you seen your own name discussed in Question 441669 ?!

If there were an insufficient number of GA Researchers, that would
imply that GARs like me, who labor full-time here trying to earn a
living, should be able to fill our days with work. Instead, most of my
day is spent fishing, not catching. If I see an answerable question at
a fair price, I'll give it a try. But I am not going to invest hours
of work on a $2 question, only to see my overall rating go down
because I didn't do enough.

Underpricing and unreasonable expectations are the main reasons for
unanswered questions. Adding more Researchers won't fix those
problems. Adding more Researchers will just make things more difficult
for me, and for the other Researchers who have no income other than
GA.

Then there are the 'commentors' like me who have made close to 300
comments with the majority of them being 'answers' to the smaller
questions that I feel the researchers are never going to answer for
the price...ahh...it is bliss to answer for free and wait for GR to
hire again!

In reply to: Videoga-GA - that surely constitutes an answer and an
excellent one at that!

In reply to: comments from others - thanks for your comments!  

From Video-GA's answer it would appear that there are 500 researchers
worldwide.  There are, however, an awful lot of unanswered questions
and this must surely be eroding the usefulness of Google Answers,
leading to lack of confidence that questions will be answered and
therefore depressing prices further?

PS - another thank you to Videoga, the sites linked in that answer
about "my name" brought back some excellent memories!

I can't help but add my two cents.

As has been discussed before on this site there are many researchers
who have not answered questions in quite some time although they are
still technically "official researchers".  I don't think the 500
number is all that important.  As videoga has pointed out the number
of active good researchers whatever that number may be is sufficient
and probably was the goal of the project.

Questions are not unanswered because of lack of researchers.  The
current researchers fight over the questions as it is and are dying to
provide answers but often this just isn't possible because the
question is unanswerable or is grossly underpriced.  I have seen
researchers work hours to provide an answer to a two dollar question
(in which they receive only $1.50).  I think it may be worthwhile for
a researcher to provide in a comment the fact that they attempted an
answer and were unsuccessful and possibly provide some guidence.  This
would cut down on the number of customers who feel they are being
ignored.

I am not a Google researcher and do not wish to be, but I have posted
comments to quite a few questions.  I am reluctant, however, to
"answer" questions via the comments as I don't wish to take money away
form the researchers.

If you research the history of sites like this you will learn that
they have not been too successful. There are numerous reasons for that
but the major one has been the low dollar value put by the questioners
on their questions. I have had experience at several such sites and
the only one that made a decent run at it was advice.com and then they
bailed out too. I found that in my own field,copyright and the music
industry,  answering even some of the smaller valued questions
sometimes led to more lucrative work. If advice.com had put the
"experts" under contract, they would have made much more money. I
generated almost $10,000 on one project alone as a result of answering
a $50.00 question. So, it will be interesting to see where this one is
heading. It may exist just to draw people for more ads or it may be a
pre emptive strike at this market trying to keep the competition out
or to see if they can make it work. To the researchers, don't quit
your day jobs! My free advice to google; go big or go home!

Why is it, "A penny for your thoughts," but, "you have to put your two
cents in?" Somebody's making a penny. - Steven Wright

A couple of related thoughts. I'll let you be the judge of them...

Isn't this a bit of a Catch-22 situation:

"While you will not be compensated for providing comments, it is a
good way to demonstrate your suitability to be a paid Researcher."

Right. But if a lot of people are "answering" questions through
comments, why would there be a need for more researchers? (I'd like
you to prove your ability to build me a pool by building me a pool.
Wow! That's a lovely pool. If I needed a pool I'd certainly hire you.)
Now you might say that Google doesn't make any money on comments, that
it would be preferable to have "commentors" be researchers. I would
think that while it might be lucrative to be a researcher (it's my
understanding that pinkfreud has recently closed on a 12,000 s.f.
South Beach estate), Google Answers must be very very insignificant to
the overall Google revenue stream.

Anyway, how about this: Rather than continually growing in scope,
Google Answers will one day be obsolete. In a minor sense, consider
the number of repeat questions already - an answered question never
needs to be answered again. In a major sense, isn't there the
anticipation that future search engines will be so much more
sophisticated/intuitive that human help will be rendered unnecessary?

Have a good day.

>> I would think that while it might be lucrative to be a 
>> researcher (it's my understanding that pinkfreud has 
>> recently closed on a 12,000 s.f. South Beach estate)

I appreciate that you're joshing around, but others may not realize
that your remark is a joke. In point of fact, I would be doing much
better financially if I were in sufficiently good health to get a job
flipping burgers, digging ditches, or changing bedlinens in motel
rooms.

No offense intended pinkfreud.
It was just a jape to illustrate that perhaps Google Answers isn't
quite the money-making occupation some seem to think it is.
I wish you all the best.

We just discovered GA a few weeks ago, and are stunned at the low
prices offered.  My fist easy question, I offered $15, yet it was so
easy that it was immediately answered by a commenter.  Even so, I left
it two more days before closing it just to see what I might get from a
researcher.  I encouraged one questioner (going stale) to quintuple
his price, he did, and yes, he finally got an excellent answer to his
serious business question.  We think GA is great!  I love scanning the
questions for the really interesting ones.  Look for 4-5 star answers,
and questions with lots of comments.  Fun!

I have receive some great answers from Google Answers. However I would
love someone to answer my question no. 445451.

Or tell me why the question is unanswerable!!

Kind Regards

Mongolia

This is a different, but related question 

RE: why some questions go unanswered?

 One assumption is that there is not enough researchers.
 But, as others pointed out, researchers spend lot of time
 searching for 'answerable questions'. I will illustrate on this
 comment, that 'answerable' means more then [price>$2] :

From: mongolia-ga on 04 Mar 2006 16:57 PST 	  	
love someone to answer my question no. 445451.
Or tell me why the question is unanswerable!!

In this case (I do not speak for others) this is why Mongolia:
   Each time  researcher invests time into researching a question,
   organizing, spellchecking .. s/he takes a risk.
  One learns by experience. Recent experience I had is here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=440753
 This question expired today, unanswered, carrying a decent price tag. 
Why?
 I invested several hours,  preparing an answer and in RFC dialog,
 and in the end I withdraw the answer. Sometimes asker asks for refund
 and I had few of those, but in most cases I do withdraw the answer
 when customer is unhappy and dificult to satisfy. I actually try quite hard to
 a) tell the truth  and b) get 5 stars and c) to make some money
 in that order of importance.

So, in your case, I think the question 
Subject: Views of Political Parties Asked By Mongolia 
is interesting and reasonably priced. By coincidence, I was recently
trying to make sense of the EU parties and came across this page
http://www.europarl.eu.int/groups/default_en.htm
which provides a link between the 'groups' (which do publish planks)
and national parties. I was tempted, to 'look into' your question.

Then I noticed another recent discussion regarding the 'dark matter'
in our universe. (I do not think there is any).
I gained impression that you sometime use 'ad hominem' arguments. There are
arguments on both sides - really. Issue of the 'dark matter' is open question.
Based on that, I ruled that question 'on political parties' a bad
risk. I hope that other researchers will have different perspective
and your interesting question gets answered. Good luck.
More researchers will increase such chances, but the other aspect,
(that we need more good askers :-) should not be ignored.
Hedgie

Hedgie
Regarding my question 445451 , two researchers have given me some
feedback and based on their Feedback I have somewhat altered the
parameters of my question. So I am hoping that someone may answer my
question


With regards to your comment on Dark matter 
<<Then I noticed another recent discussion regarding the 'dark matter'
in our universe. (I do not think there is any).>>

You are perfectly entiteld to your opinion that there is no Dark Matter 
in our Universe. However everything I have read regarding Dark Matter 
would suggest the  observation of Dark matter in our universe is 
now an established fact in the astronomical community (although there
is currently no explanation as to what it is)
 
I would suggest that given your views on this subject then you might not
be the best person to answer questions on Dark Matter. 

Obviously any comments from people with Astronomy/Cosmology background
would be more than welcome.

Mongolia

Mongolia,

  Thanks for your response.

This indeed is the crux of then matter:
 " However everything I have read regarding Dark Matter .."

Have you read the article from Scientific American, which I have quoted as
a part of my answer? Perhaps that is not a journal to be quoted, considering
they publish reviews like that?

To return to the original question:
Perhaps it can be seen as compliment to the Researchers and G-A as
facility that so many questions are posted  - that askers feel or have
heard that "anything" can be answered here.
I wonder if Google could not improve the setup for posting questions
to improve askers' understanding of the requirements for a good
question.  So many people omit telling where they are on questions
where this must be asked for in the first comment or clarification,
also other requiring shortcomings.
A few more Researchers would be good, IMHO, but none of those who ask
(which per se disqualifies them, since they didn't research the
situation first.