[WEB4LIB] google answers

[Jenny Levine]

From: "Tomaiuolo, Nicholas (Library)" <TomaiuoloN at mail.ccsu.edu>

> First: for such an omnipotent a service as Google, they are getting relatively
> few questions.... I don't see the
> service amounting to much, at least as it stands.  Again, because there
> hasn't been a preponderance of queries and, secondly because the question is
> answered for all intents and purposes, in many cases, without anyone
> claiming the fee.  Has anyone else noticed this??

    I think the reason there are so few questions is that there is no link to the service
on the main Google page. Probably 95% of Internet users (including Google users) don't
even know about the service. It's not like it's being advertised on the nightly news where
the average person might see a reference to it. I think it says something that the folks
at Google are hesitant to link to the Answers service from their main page, but then maybe
they still consider it a beta project.
    Either way, at this point your average person doesn't know anymore about the Google
Answers service than they do about their local library's reference service.

Jenny
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Jenny Levine                                          125 Tower Drive
Internet Development Specialist              Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Suburban Library System                       +1 (630) 734 5141
http://www.sls.lib.il.us/                            levinej at sls.lib.il.us
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