Answerbag Q&A Service Adds Videos, Yahoo Next?
Answerbag, which is an all question and answers service site, offering a social information structure similar to Yahoo Answers, has added a new feature, “Video Answers” allowing users to answer questions with images or video rather than text. One example would be giving visual answers for questions like, “How do I bathe a baby?” or “How do I do a ‘wheelie’ on a motorcycle?”
YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, AOL Uncut and now Yahoo Video are fueling the amateur online video production and publication phenomena which Answerbag, owned by parent company Infosearch Media, is now harnessing with its Video Answers.
“Social Q&A is more than search, it is content creation and publishing. It is a community of people who want high quality and helpful responses to a specific question from other users that they trust,” said Joel Downs, vice president of product marketing, InfoSearch Media, and founder of Answerbag. “As the first Social Q&A site to offer video, we feel that we are providing a better, more in-depth experience for our users. Answerbag is committed, through technology innovations and strategic new hires, to providing the best tools and experience online for this community.”
From Answerbag:
In conjunction with the launch of Video Answers, Answerbag will conduct an online contest for users to post relevant and useful video answers to questions posed on the site. The Video Answers provided will be judged by how well they answer the question and how valuable their information is, and the best answers will be eligible for prizes. Additionally, Answerbag announced that it has surpassed the 1 million unique user milestone, due largely to word-of-mouth and the quality of its users. Answerbag was created in 2003 and has developed a strong following of users, both novice and experts, who provide in-depth information on a wide-variety of topics, even with a limited marketing budget.
Not sure is Answerbag means 1 million registered users or unique users who have visited the site in that statement, but with the army of content providers Infosearch Media has under its TrafficLogic division, it makes one wonder how many of the answers or questions are provided internally. Not to point the bogus finger, as AOL Netscape is seeding itself internally with its launch as do many other user generated start ups.
Regardless, the Video Answers is a smart idea and differentiation point to set it apart from Yahoo, Google and MSN Social Q&A offerings (expect Yahoo to integrate soon as their social direction is getting more and more video by the minute).
