What do you think can be the real, if any, maybe hidden purpose of the Yahoo Answers service?

Question

Isn't it extrange that they are desperately trying to make it so popular? Be careful people, don't just take it for granted.

Answer 1

I think they are gathering information from what everyone knows and are going to compile it into a book and sell it.

Answer 2

There are many purposes certainly, promotion etc. but the benefit may overwhelm any other purpose. I am sure there were sex questions that you wanted answered but was too ashamed to ask your parents, and then turned to friends who knew little more than you.. As with any business, I am certain that there are profit motives and perhaps even covert purposes such as learning your inner-most thoughts and then reporting them to federal agencies.Or extrapolating on that, this means that 'Letters to the Editors' which require a full name, address and even phone numbers should be suspect. Opinion polls should be banned as you may be traced, identified and perhaps liquidated as an abberant person. I doubt seriously that Yahoo is desperate about the open exhange of ideas and perhaps offer the open forum as a means to both gain subscribers and offer a small public service. Remember that Yahoo is paid by the various advertisers and the more subscribers to Yahoo, means higher fees to advertise. You read far too much into the motivation. Many people benefit by advice and though many questions are both shallow and nonsensical, there are serious issues that advice can resolve. It opens a door to an exchange of views that some have never considered. It is faceless so that highly personal questions might be answered that the individual would never have been brave enough to ask in public. If only one person benefits from a thousand meaningless questions then it serves a worthwhile function. Just like Homeland Security that sees terrorists under each garbage can and deadly bombs implanted in coat hangers, don't look for things that don't exist.

Answer 3

What ever the purpose there is no denying that we can engage in a free duologue like London speakers corner in England although I have seen the quality of answers is little bit lacking .let us all make it a place for fruitful discussion and i am sure by taking part seriously the young folks can learn a lot about politics of north America and world.I commend yahoo Answers for this free service.

Answer 4

Real intelligence beats artificial intellegence when it comes to human questions. If the system were to really start working, Yahoo would gain market share with people coming here to get answers rather than using google, etc. This may also be another Web2.0 experiment, with Yahoo gambling that it pays off and becomes popular...

Answer 5

Good Question. Could be very informative in many areas.

How easy would it be for some pro- Saddam followers to be sitting at a Computer, on the other side of the World, or yes, even in the U.S., continuing to spew forth dissension among the American People?

Hook line and sinker, Hook line and sinker........ People.

Answer 6

Well its number one mission is to help the site sell advertising and increase traffic;

But that aside I believe you are referring to the paid political operatives around here that spew both sides of the fence on a regular basis. They want to sway public opinion in their favor. Its free except for their wages.

By the way both sides deny it; but I know for a fact one side has done it and I can't believe for a second the other side has not.

Answer 7

Most likely so they could get a large databases of questions with answers so that when people do a search for a question there's a large possibility that there will be an answer to their question in the database.

I don't think, however, that they were looking for questions like "Is Bush a moron" with responses like "go to hell you liberal, Clinton sucked"...etc.

Answer 8

Its really a government plot to find out what we think of Bush and Cheney. All those of us who dislike them will mysteriously disappear in the middle of the night and be taken off to hidden concentration camps where we will be brainwashed. When we return we will be proper thinking right-wing Christian conservatives.

Answer 9

the real purpose is freedom and democracy which is supposedly why we have 2543 body bags in iraq.

while north korea may have nukes we can simply engage in a MAD deterrence that worked with Russia.

WHY DIDN'T WE DO THAT WITH IRAQ?

Answer 10

To get people to reveal their deep dark secrets, so that the government agencies who monitor it can create yet another database.