Electronic reference and the "competition"

[Sloan, Bernie]

As some of you know, I have a research interest in electronic reference
services. I'm getting ready to take a fairly detailed look at some library
sites that offer electronic reference service (e.g., e-mail reference, Web
forms, chat, etc.), and I'd like to get some input on one aspect of this
issue.

As I was preparing to do this, I started thinking about the number of
dot-com services that have been popping up on the Web that offer to answer
general questions from Web users. These commercial services might
theoretically be considered as "competition" for library-based e-reference
servies and non-commerical AskA services. I've located about 20 such
services so far. See the following two articles to get an idea of the types
of services I'm talking about:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/circuits/articles/03info.html
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/00/0207/6503134a.htm

Anyway, if you're interested in e-reference services, I'd appreciate it if
you would consider the following two questions:

1. Are you aware of other, general (i.e., not subject-specific) commercial
question-answering services that are not included in my list? (See list at
end of this note)

2. Do you consider these commercial services to be serious competition for
library-based electronic reference services and/or AskA services? If you
think they are "competition", why? If you don't see them as competition, why
not?

Not all of these sites are similar functionally, but they all fit into a
generic category. Some offer interactive or e-mail help from "real people".
Some offer directories to topical information. Some offer natural language
search engines. Some offer two or three of these capabilities. Following is
my list of sites. (Note: some of you may notice that xpertsite.com is not on
the list....that's because they changed their name to askme.com):

http://www.about.com
http://www.abuzz.com/
http://www.allexperts.com
http://www.answers.com/
http://www.askanexpert.com
http://www.askjeeves.com
http://www.askme.com/
http://www.deja.com
http://www.ehow.com
http://www.exp.com/
http://www.expertcentral.com/
http://www.experts-exchange.com/
http://www.factcity.com/
http://www.inforocket.com
http://www.keen.com/web/
http://www.knowpost.com/
http://www.liveperson.com
http://www.looksmart.com/
http://www.webhelp.com
http://www.wepick.com/

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
338 Henry Administration Building
506 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL  61801
Phone:  (217) 333-4895
Fax:      (217) 333-6355
E-mail:  bernies at uillinois.edu