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  2. Have you seen Yahoo answers?

Have you seen Yahoo answers?

By gregladen on December 11, 2007.

The two most annoying kinds of "hits" from an internet search are:

1) When you find a site with your question rephrased exactly as it should be, and the first few sentences of the answer you need, but to continue ... to be able to read the answer ... you must register, and possibly even pay; and 2)

When all you can find is the answer on Yahoo Answers.

The blockbuster success of Yahoo! Answers is all the more surprising once you spend a few days using the site. While Answers is a valuable window into how people look for information online, it looks like a complete disaster as a traditional reference tool. It encourages bad research habits, rewards people who post things that aren't true, and frequently labels factual errors as correct information. It's every middle-school teacher's worst nightmare about the Web.

Indeed. Not only are the answers often wrong, but it is generally not possible to tell if something is wrong by looking at it.

Read this thoughtful critique of Yahoo Answers on Slate.com

Tags
Science Education
Technology

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