FW: google answers

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Google Answers

Chuck posted this last September and there wasn't a lot of comment as I
recall.  I had a look this weekend - read a batch of the answered
questions to see how much they cost and what kinds of answers people were
getting - and I am intrigued.

Has anyone else looked at it?  What do you think? Margaret Landesman Head,
Collection Development University of Utah

-----Original Message-----
From: Hamaker, Chuck [mailto:cahamake@email.uncc.edu]
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 4:10 PM
To: Liblicense-L (E-mail)
Subject: google answers

Paying for reference

Google Answers gives you access to more than 500 approved Researchers.
Starting at $2.50 per question they will do your research for you. Google
Answers guarantees satisfaction. 85% of answers are provided within one
day.

When you post a question to Google Answers, you specify how much you're
willing to pay for an answer. A Researcher will search for the information
you want. When they find it, they will post it to Google Answers, and you
will be notified via email. You will only be charged for your question if
and when an answer is posted to it.

https://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html

https://answers.google.com/answers/main

Discussion in WIRED Sept. 10th, 2002

Thin Line Splits Cheating, Smarts 2:00 a.m. Sep. 10, 2002 PDT 

http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,54963,00.html

"Staffed by a cadre of 500-plus freelance researchers, the service takes
people's questions -- for example, a calculus problem or a term paper
topic -- and provides answers and links to information. Google charges a
listing fee of 50 cents and, if someone comes up with a satisfactory
response, the user pays that researcher a previously entered bid (minimum:
$2).  Although Google Answers has a policy encouraging students to use the
service as a study aid rather than a substitution for original work,
several cases show that students often ignore this advice.

One student in Quebec, dismayed by a response that offered only background
research for a paper on religion, pleads, "Make it into an essay, not just
links and quotes. I need this asap PLEASE!!! 2500 words is the minimum."

While researchers are scrupulous enough not to churn out a completed term
paper -- despite the Quebec student's $55 bid -- other potential homework
questions, such as math or science problems, can be harder to identify. In
some cases researchers acknowledge that a question looks like homework --
but they still provide the answer. "

Review from--Information Today (April 2002)
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb020422-3.htm

"The service is fairly simple. After registering at Google, you log in to
Google Answers and provide a user name, decide how often you want to be
e-mailed about your question activities, and agree to Google's terms of
service.  .... Hmm. People visiting a place where researchers will answer
a wide variety of questions. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? In fact, it
sounds a lot like a library. Rodriguez doesn't agree. "Google Answers is
an extension of Google's search offerings, enabling users who are limited
by time or search skills to have their questions answered by an expert
researcher." "