|
Richard Marchal is the top-rated answerer on Yahoo! Answers, and has answered more than 6,400 questions in just over a year. The hobby allows him to be grandpa to hundreds, says Marchal, whose reward consists of points that determine his ranking. Yahoo! sells ads on Answers, where visitors do most of the work, and other companies allow volunteers to provide online technical support. Google began its Answers service four years ago, but eliminated it in December. Google Answerers had been paid at rates set by askers, and, while Google has not explained why the service was eliminated, but Hitwise's estimate is that Yahoo! Answers had 24 times as much traffic in October. At the end of 2006, there were 85 million answers on Yahoo!, many of which are goofy, but there is also good advice and well-researched fact. Adobe Systems and other design software also benefit from online volunteers, one of whom is Murray Summers, freelance web developer in Pennsylvania, who spends about 10 hours each day providing advice on how to user Adobe software on the Adobe web forum. Commenting on such volunteerism is Patricia Wallace, author of The Psychology of the Internet, who says anonymity helps volunteers take the risk of helping and that anonymity helps to promote asking behavior, partly because there may be no others around to help.
|
Information Sources, Inc.
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}