Whether this will be enough to dethrone Yahoo from the top of the answering heap, beyond the answers people get themselves from search engines, is naturally yet to be seen.

But with over 60 million users each month on Yahoo Answers, Askville has a big battle ahead of it. Luckily for Askville, it’s not a new start-up that’s looking for funding, but has the immense backing of the successful Amazon online conglomerate behind it.

Amazon plans to offer ‘Quest Coins’ in an attempt to lure people into using the service, whether by asking questions, or by answering them. A website called www.questville.com will go online later in 2007, where Quest Coins can be redeemed for products and services that are yet to be officially announced. Experience Points will also be offered.

Our take? Well, anything that helps Internet users get better answers to their questions is a good thing, as long as the answers provided are actually useful. Given the fact that many of the questions could probably be answered by doing a Google search just goes to show that the vast majority of Internet users likely still do not know how to use a search engine properly, and that people want results without effort.

If that trend continues, reputable answer services will be more important than ever, although we can only hope that the younger generation puts all that Internet savvy to good use, proactively finding the right answers on their own almost ‘immediately’, rather than having to wait for someone to get back to you.

After all, the Internet is all about empowerment, and while getting someone else to do the research for you is still empowering, there’s nothing like getting the answer you need, right now, when you need it, not when someone gets around to answering your question for you.

Visit ZDNet for more information.
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Alex Zaharov-Reutt  Google  Internet  Services  Web  Yahoo!