You will probably think, if Yahoo has Q and A service, then probably Google and Microsoft has. In fact, both used to have but not anymore.
Microsoft service was called: MSN QandA (actually it started as Live Search QandA then Windows Live QandA). Another example showing how much Microsoft is confused about naming and packaging its products families…
MSN QandA was bit similar to Yahoo Answers. Users could ask questions, tag them according to topic, and gain points and reputation for answering other users’ questions.
The first of the three was Google Answers, it was different as it used to involve fees for asking questions. When a question is asked a price is offered, and any researcher who is interested in answering the question will lock the question and answer it. Researchers were not Google employees, but contractors that were required to complete an application process to be approved to answer for the site. The website was closed in December 2006.
More about other today’s major players in online Q and A in the next post.
