Yahoo! Answers Review

If you have a question, you will almost surely get an answer at Yahoo Answers. That's linked off the main Yahoo page - easy to find.

To ask or answer questions, you need to sign up. That's easy. Just be sure to remember your sign in data. You can set it for 2 weeks or so, but you have to put it back in from time to time.

The site is divided into categories like law, health, food, recreation and so on. Then, the categories are further divided. When you're asking a question, you are prompted to select a category, and those tend to be spot on based on the question.

On the flip side,you can log in and respond to questions. You earn points for answering and lose some for asking questions with a limit of questions per day. I don't know of any benefit to the points other than the ego part.

The questions roll in fast, so responses are usually quick. So, if you are cooking a dish and want to know if you can substitute an item, this is a quick way to find out. In other cases, you may have a question about a niche topic that's not covered well online. Instead of search, toss it out. Often, someone will know the answer.

The down side to the speed is that your question quickly gets buried. It seems most people answering do not page back far and esp if your question had a couple of responses. So, if you don't get a good answer pretty quick, you may not.

There are also some members who seem to be more interested in earning points than helping out.

I asked about a pine allergy. Someone told me I was probably allergic to dust. Duh. I didn't ask for a diagnosis. I know what I'm allergic to. I saw another question in the allergy section where someone said a cold brownie made her tongue burn. Two people answering thought it was a hot brownie, because they clearly did not read the question very well.

Members can vote on "best answers." Those providing best answers get bonus points. So, you see some people who try way too hard. You ask for a recipe, and they must find a whole slew of them online and paste them up. Then you scroll and scroll to find recipes that people really make and then share as good ones and favorites. But, some of those gosh awful long posts get clicked as best answers, so that encourages that sort of behavior. I'm not seeing so much of that now - thankfully.

In addition to the post, those answering can link a source. They are right below the answer if the person added a link. Some of those are very good.

There are some kids and nuts at Yahoo Answers. Some of the questions are silly. Some of the answers are too. There are occasional rude or mean answers as well but not a lot. Those drop to the bottom anyway as members click thumbs up or down.

All in all, I find Yahoo Answers to be quite helpful. If you need to know who starred in a movie, how to cut tile, where to buy certain items, or how to use a steamer, you'll get some quick information. Much of the data is very good. Some of it is not. So, evaluate the information and enjoy the help and ignore the junk.