Why ask the Answers.com community when you could find an answer by using a search engine?

Answer 1

Answers.com's mission is to be the best place for answers about anything. It is not a search engine. Instead, it's a user-generated Q&A community (WikiAnswers), where askers can get answers from multiple types of resources.

The WikiAnswers community collaborates on answers to questions about thousands of topics. Millions of dedicated members from around the globe aim to answer questions coming in from all kinds of people. In essence, WikiAnswers is a human-powered answering service, so that real people can get answers from other real people.

Contributors share more reasons:

• People use websites like Answers.com (instead of a search engine such as Google) because Google does not give the answers to everything; it just gives links to other sites (which may not even be correct). Some questions have never been asked before, so a search engine would not be helpful in such a situation. Answers.com also differentiates itself because you can change questions and answers to improve content, spelling, and grammar. You can't do that on a regular website.
• Some people lack the technical skill or the research experience to use a search engine effectively. Giving an instant answer to a question provides both a quick and efficient way to find the information they are seeking from a community of volunteers who give generously of their time and knowledge.
• Search results are largely based on the text in a website. If the text typed in for the search doesn't match the text in a website, the result may not show up in the search results. This can happen if a website is primarily created from graphics and/or videos. Many inexperienced Web surfers may be unaware that a different search engine - or a longer, more particular search - could help a user refine their search results.
• Many Wiki Answers questions could be answered with "Look up 'XYZ' on Google," or "Check your owner's manual," or "Check the current Blue Book price guide," etc. However, many people haven't developed good research skills. They may genuinely be at a loss for where to look for information. Regular users of search engines tend to forget that they once learned how to use a search engine. Very few people are really good at it. The same goes for libraries. Librarians exist because people aren't born knowing how to use a library. Even a phone book is something you once needed to learn how to use.
• You don't need to help anyone here on WikiAnswers. Naturally, it's completely up to you if you choose to help answer a question or not. But if you do help answer a question, try to assume that the person who asked genuinely needs your help.
• They could have tried and nothing came up because it wasn't the technical term. But other people might know something about the topic.
• Google doesn't answer questions; they just point you at web pages that might have the answer to your question. Someone has to have written the answer to your question on a page somewhere for Google to find. And that's what we do here: answer questions.