Computers Aardvark - "Yahoo Answers on steroids"

**Bearcat** · 08-07-2010, 02:35 PM

http://vark.com

Anyone use it?

Just signed up for it and it looks like a cool concept. The service was bought by Google in February.

Asking questions: You can (optionally) have it pull in your Facebook contacts, instant messaging contacts, email, etc. When you ask a question via IM, email, or the website, it first looks at your contacts to see if they use Aardvark and might be able to answer the question, then it'll look at friends of friends, then finally the whole Aardvark network. They advertise that many questions are answered within ~5-10 minutes.

Answering questions: You can also setup a list of topics that you're willing to answer questions about, and that's how Aardvark knows who to contact. So, you can make a list like 'Kansas City', 'Android', 'Travel', etc; and go into settings and tell it how (IM or email), how often (all the time, a few times a day, a couple times a week), and when you can be contacted (weekdays, weeknights, weekends), and the service might email or IM you a question from time to time. You can also go to the website and click the 'answer' link, and it'll show you unanswered questions that fall into the topics you've provided.

I might use it from time to time when Google fails... since the questions you receive are filtered by topics, it seems less likely you'll get asinine questions like Yahoo Answers (not that I ever us it, but I am a regular in the Fail thread), and if you have contacts using it, you're probably more likely to trust the source. The question/answer part seems pretty anonymous though, so I'm not sure if it tells you where the answer came from... if it gives a name or says 'in network'/'out of network'.

08-07-2010, 02:35 PM	Topic Starter
Bearcat Would an idiot do that? Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Arizona Casino cash: $-925069	Aardvark - "Yahoo Answers on steroids" http://vark.com Anyone use it? Just signed up for it and it looks like a cool concept. The service was bought by Google in February. Asking questions: You can (optionally) have it pull in your Facebook contacts, instant messaging contacts, email, etc. When you ask a question via IM, email, or the website, it first looks at your contacts to see if they use Aardvark and might be able to answer the question, then it'll look at friends of friends, then finally the whole Aardvark network. They advertise that many questions are answered within ~5-10 minutes. Answering questions: You can also setup a list of topics that you're willing to answer questions about, and that's how Aardvark knows who to contact. So, you can make a list like 'Kansas City', 'Android', 'Travel', etc; and go into settings and tell it how (IM or email), how often (all the time, a few times a day, a couple times a week), and when you can be contacted (weekdays, weeknights, weekends), and the service might email or IM you a question from time to time. You can also go to the website and click the 'answer' link, and it'll show you unanswered questions that fall into the topics you've provided. I might use it from time to time when Google fails... since the questions you receive are filtered by topics, it seems less likely you'll get asinine questions like Yahoo Answers (not that I ever us it, but I am a regular in the Fail thread), and if you have contacts using it, you're probably more likely to trust the source. The question/answer part seems pretty anonymous though, so I'm not sure if it tells you where the answer came from... if it gives a name or says 'in network'/'out of network'.
Posts: 59,489