July 6, 2005

Answers.com is actually a mix between an online encyclopedia and an Internet search engine. But can it drastically change the search landscape?

To most users, the important thing is to find the most relevant information as quickly as possible. To some observers, Answers.com could be the answer to that need.

A search in Answers.com looks a lot like Wikipedia, whose resources are actually used by the search engine, but it’s much more than that. In order to get a clearer picture of what’s happening on Answers.com, imagine that you can access from the same interface Google, Wikipedia, Encarta, Britannica, MarketWatch, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia and other several hundred content providers.

Typing in a keyword in Answers.com won’t return links, or at least, only links, but also bits and pieces of articles, references to online resources and so on.

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For example, a search for the word Apple will generate not only a page with the company’s history, but also a list of keywords that can be used in order to extend the search domain in case Steve Jobs’s company was not what you were looking for.

For example, this is how I found out that Apple is also the name of a British psychedelic rock band and the title of an episode from Star Trek. By means of this technology, even if the search for the most interesting link is eliminated, you’re left with sufficient possibilities to search for other information as well, browsing thus becoming a very pleasant and educative experience.

Answers.com also offers a toolbar for Internet Explorer, which doesn’t resemble anything we’ve seen so far in the field of searches, and is using the technology on which GuruNet, the company owning Answers.com, has based its entire project upon.

With this toolbar, by left clicking and pressing ALT, you can receive information and the translation of any word on a Web page, any Word document or any other text displayed on your screen for that matter. You won’t have to search in any other dictionary or encyclopedia, because they’re already embedded in Answers.com.

But being just a young project, Answers.com also has some deficiencies, such as search inquiries that return no answer. For these, the search engine redirects the user to other areas.

Another small handicap that can be brought against Answers.com is that it’s too dependant upon Wikipedia, a project that doesn’t always contain the most accurate information. Another disadvantage is that Answers.com doesn’t offer a result for whatever notion you might decide to search.

One thing is certain. Answers.com is the beginning of what Web search should really be. By using it, could some people actually develop an addiction to it?

Source: Softpedia News

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