Hello. How long should I wait for an answer before I close it? The
expiring time?
I ask this because I didn't have my question answered. I wonder why,
and I saw the discussion about how researchers choose the questions.
If my question is not atractive, I could close it and try in another
way to put.
In my case, it is not a matter of price because I offer a lot and I
saw many more difficult questions answered much faster.
Thanks for your attention,

Most questions that I have seen on the google answers website are
answered within 2 days unless one of the following situations applies:

1) The question is overly vague and the asker does not provide
clarification when it is requested.

2) The question asks for industry statistics that are hard to locate
such as "what are the top 50 markets for product xyz".

3) The question has a title or wording that makes it not attractive to
a researcher.

Furhtermore, as a question gets ignored for a period of time, most
researchers will never see it again, as it floats down the list of
recent questions needing an answer. As the amoun of question traffic
has increased, it is not uncommon for a question that has not seen
activity for even a single day to be many pages deep in the list of
unanswered questions.

Since you stated that your questions are much more expensive than the
google answers listing fee, I would recommend canceling your question
and rewording both the title and the question itself to be more
researcher friendly.

What this means is it should grab the attention of a researcher to
think to themselves "I know I can answer this question and satisfy
this asker if I put in the effort". I am often discouraged by
questions that I feel have no definitive answer. For this reason, in
wording your question, I would be specific as to what you expect from
an excellent answer.

If this answer does not meet your needs or expectations, please
request that I clarify it before rating my answer.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by lfobarri-ga on 01 Nov 2002 05:36 PST

Thanks for your answer. The issue is clearer for me, but I need two
clarifications:

1.You mentioned wording. International people makes more mistakes in
English then native speakers, and Google is worldwide. So, do you
think International people (like me) has more disadvantages in
grabbing attention? Are researchers picky in this issue? (I am talking
about small problems - one sentence, and I acknowledge that there are
questions impossible to understand).

2.I understood that there is a component of marketing or advertising
in elaborating the question. Users must master their skills in
grabbing attention. Therefore, I understand that there is a
COMPETITION, not a simple service where there are clients to be helped
regardless their marketing skills. Is it right?

Thanks again, I got the big picture I needed and I understood that 2
days is the average to get some answer.

---

Clarification of Answer by funkywizard-ga on 01 Nov 2002 11:32 PST

I would say that having english not be your first language will put
you at some disadvantage, but that you should still expect to have
your questions answered fairly fast. Many questions that appear to be
poorly thought out or with poor grammer etc. still get a response
fairly quickly, but the quality of the answer will definitly improve
if the researcher knows what is being looked for. It may help to see
the question that you have not been able to get anyone to respond to
in order to better assess your particular situation.

I would say that most researchers are not going to be picky about some
problems with grammer or spelling so long as they can understand what
is being asked of them. So long as you think a researcher will be able
to easily understand what information you are specifically looking for
without having to guess or have the question clarified, a few minor
problems should not make a difference.

As for the issue of competition, that is something of a factor.
Firstly, questions that are less than $10 tend to only be answered
quickly if they are very easy to answer. Many more difficult questions
under $10 will still get answered, but not as quickly. For questions
under $10 I would say the biggest factor would be having the title of
your question make the reader feel "I know something about this
subject so I think I can probably answer it well without an hour of
effort". For questions over $10, I feel that researchers are looking
for something different, a title that makes them feel "I can possibly
answer this question well if I try".

Right now, there is a good proportion of google researchers compared
to the number of questions being asked, such that there is much less
competition for researchers as there is competition for good questions
to answer. Also, most google researchers are looking to find quality
answers for the askers, and will not answer a question if they do not
think they can provide an adaquate response. Therefore, for some
questions, it may be helpful to specify both what you ideally want
from an answer and what you are willing to settle for if nobody can
come up with the "ideal" answer to your question. You may specify that
an answer that meets the "ideal" will get a certain amount of tip, and
lower the price of the question thus that a non-ideal answer that
still gives you valuable information will get less money.

Due to the nature of the answers researchers, if your question appears
at first glance to be answerable and worth the researchers time, you
should be able to get an answer very quickly. The more difficult a
question is, the more detail should be put into the question rather
than the title. For a straightforward question like this one, putting
the main point of the question as the title (rather than simply the
subject it pertains to), is appropriate. However, a more difficult
question might do better with a somewhat more vague title and a
detailed description in the main body of the question.

I think in general, your title should tell the researcher what area of
knowledge is needed to have the best chance of answering the question
quickly. The main description of the question should then have enough
pertinant information so that the researcher can know how a good
answer to the question should look, and what they need to research.

Thanks and I understood the mechanics of answering question. The
researcher put effort to answer this question. But it is a pity. He
tried to answer this irrelevant question and cheap one, while many
others more crucial, important and expensive are not answer because
there is a competition among users to market the questions using
techniques to grab attention of researchers. I noticed the there is
not a sincere service here. Anyway, it is a interesting service of
Google and I understand that the reseachers are NOT able to answer
difficult questions.

Historically, more questions are 'unanswered' at any one time then are
'answered'. Obviously, some of these questions will be answered in the
course of time and others simply expire.

I would like to say that difficult questions can be answered using the
google service, in defense of it. One example is a question I just
answered regarding pig farming costs [
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=94074 ] and
another difficult and important question that comes to mind is about
licensing fees required to play sports shows in public places [
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=94785 ]
which receieved a 5 star rating.

I spent ample time on your self described cheap and unimportant
question, since it struck me as a question that I could answer, and I
did not want to provide a sub-par response or an incomplete answer,
thus my attention to detail in this matter.

I agree with you and I am happy with the answer. And I rated it 5
stars.
My comments were about the other difficult questions. And the concept
of "difficult" is relative. Don't take it personally. Thanks very much
for you commitment with my question.

Thanks again for asking the question, and I apologize if my tone
sounded unprofessional. I was wondering if you could give a link to
the question you found that researchers were unable to answer?

Hi, the link I refered is
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=91599

I had many comments, and nice ones. I liked the service because it
allow comments. And I understood that researchers are conservative and
just answer if they have a good answer, not just an idea. This is very
professional and I think Google selected good ethical researchers.

ah, the game theory question. that indeed was a hard one, but I am
surprised nobody came up with a really good answer for you. I saw
nothing wrong with the structure of the question, I easily understood
what you were looking for.

There are two things you can do to increase probability of question
being answered (at least, by me)
  1. Increase the price.
  2. Clearly delineate what an acceptable answer is.

1 goes without saying. Most questions that I look at are just too
underpriced for me, and I go on to the next one; conversely, I would
answer many questions for say $200 . When the price gets above about
$100, for example, I am willing to contact other experts even if I
cannot answer it myself, so I would say most questions in the $100 to
$200 range get answered. Below $100, it's less and less likely. 50 is
about the point where I will do a little bit of independent research -
but for significant amount of research, I usually require more.

For 2, you have to understand that one of the big risks of answering
is when one answers something and the customer just doesn't like it.
This messes up one's rating, and risks wasting everyone's time. So
it's important that there be a clear answer that everyone agrees is
right.

By way of example, I also looked at
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=91599 . I
chose not to answer it because it was not clear to me what it means to
"use game theory". For example, are Maxwell's equations "used in
practice" when a company uses electricity? I felt the question was
sufficiently ambiguous that I risked not satisfying questioner with
the answer.

Now, I could have written an essay that considered "all possible
interpretations" of the question, or entered into a long round of
question clarification requests, but these long unstructured essays
are too much for me to do for $50; I would probably have considered
answering if the price had been say $150, but for $50 it just seemed
like too much of a hassle trying to nail down the precise parameters
of the desired answer. Even at the $150 price point, the question did
not make a lot of sense to me, and so I might have demurred, but I
know that other researchers are better than I am at answering vague
questions.

In conclusion: offer more money, make the questions clear and precise.

I dont agree with rbnn-ga, but I thank you for add your comment. I saw
many other for $50. In fact, most of them are below and get answers.
Few are above $50 and this one deserves this price. It is not a matter
of price now, I am afraid of offering $150 and get a poor answer (most
likely since I saw that researchers don't know game theory). If it
happened, I would rate poorly. But with $50, a good answer will
receive 5 starts. With $150, the answer should be excellent, and it
would never happen. But thanks anyway!

Look past comments and noticed that other researcher said that the
question was ok. So, first you guys should have a agreement. In this
case, I should prefer his opinion. Again, thanks for you time.

Thanks for your followup, lfobarri-ga. You make some excellent points.
Sometimes it's hard to know the best way to write a question, I have
to admit.

The only thing I wanted to make sure you understand, is that, since
you seem worried about a getting a poor answer for more money, you can
always request a refund if the answer is poor. (You probably know this
but I just want to make extra sure).

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