Why do people ask questions...?

Question

...when they can just as eaily look it up in yahoo or google?

Answer 1

I think you have already got enough feedback here (as above) as to why people ask questions in Y!A. Sometimes, I also would wonder why people ask you "How are you?" when they can see that you are either okay or not-ok.

I would tend to believe that asking questions and replying in Y!A is more fun and learning than merely asking "How are you" in social setting. It is my opinion that one day people would realise the impact created by Y!A and such forums (some even pay you for Q&A, name of which I will not reveal here as it might be against Y!A Community Guidelines).

While on this subject, I would like to mention similar accusation rose by some of the people here about the tendency of answers to go for search-engines and results are copied-and-pasted here. I think that while doing this scrambling for answers we learn a lot of things in between.

So, if anybody says that 'copy & paste' has no meaning or is not accepted and fair, then I would say that if the 'source' is not acknowledged then only it is a coming under plagiarizing (take and pass off another's thoughts, writings, etc. as one's own).

Hope we could have answered your question adequately and you may need to go for ‘searching’ the same in any search engine! At least I have learned a lot since I had to check the sentences and spellings etc.. (LOL).

Happy learning!

Answer 2

Well, like most things in this universe we live in, people tend to follow the path of least resistance. YA! is like a human-powered search engine. Not only do you get facts with related links, you can also acquire popular opinion and some obscure facts that might have been missed with a personal search.
It's also being part of a community. YA! is, in effect a community of people chatting back and forth in a semi control ed environment. Where you have all the time in the world to state your answer. It's the good life, here. :)

Answer 3

This is more of a social atmosphere than looking it up on google, which can be more appealing. Are you trying to tell us that you're better because you look up all your questions on google, retrieving more textbook style of answers quickly? Which way is better? Any method is a good one for asking a query, any journalist would tell you. That is my field so I should know.

Answer 4

because yahoo answers is a community and in a community there is dialog and without questions, there is no dialog and there for no community. if there is no community, yahoo answers would have no meaning or purpose and would eventually shut down, making the company Yahoo! loose money and they will not stand for that, now will they?

Answer 5

Because they want opinions, knowledge, reasons, informations, conformations, answers and locations from people, plus they refuse to think for themselves which is difficult for them, mind their own business; avoid caring and research for themselves.

To do people a favor, and to be polite.

Answer 6

They try to make their lives easier.When asking you are given the answer imediately by someone wlo knows.In contrast,whe shearching you waste a lot of you time and it's tiring.

Answer 7

maybe they just don't know they can do that. or maybe the results of the search weren't helpful and other people do know other places about where to find it.

sometimes they may just want personal experiences

Answer 8

If they ask a question then they can get it faster and there might not beable to find sites about what they want to know.

Answer 9

Why are you asking a question here?

Answer 10

maybe because they want to know from personal experiences