Difference between Wiki Answers and Yahoo Answers
The Internet has become a reliable source not just of entertainment and leisure, but also information. Access to the Internet has become so easy, and answers to unanswered questions we might be pondering on can literally be just a click of a button away! Several websites these days offer the capacity to answer questions that range from something as insightful as opinions on religious doctrines, to something as mundane as what Britney Spears' current hair color is.
Because of such ease of access, individuals can now go online and interact with other people by sending or giving information of every sort. Social networking sites make it a whole lot easier for us to interact and get to know people from other parts of the world, but if we happen to be looking for immediate answers to things that bug our minds, then there are also community-based websites that specialize in posting questions and corresponding answers. Two of the most popular sites of this nature would be Wikianswers and Yahoo Answers.
How They Operate
Sharing of knowledge, whether accurate or not, has become so easy on the Internet. Wikianswers is a website which thrives on the community members who post questions, and the members who also offer answers to the posted queries. It is similar to a game of Question and Answer (Q&A), only interactively done through the Internet. Anyone can practically edit and save content, to be improved later on by other members of the community.
Yahoo Answers operates in a similar way. Although limited, both sites are also available to be viewed in other languages. Yahoo Answers is an offshoot of Ask! Yahoo, which stopped operation in the year 2006.
Background
From their names itself, it is easy to find out that Yahoo Answers branched out from Yahoo!, a company that provides Internet services such as a search engine, email service, advertising and news. It was launched in 1994 by two electrical engineering students at Stanford University, Dave Filo and Jerry Young.
Wikianswers is owned by answers.com, a site that offered collective information and content from other reference sites. Wikianswers run by being supported by online advertisements. It began in 2005.
Both sites have user-generated content (USG), which means that the available content on their pages can be viewed, consumed, produced and edited by the public.
Perks
Much debate goes on as to which site is better in terms of the Q&A service offered. Wikianswers users find its interface easy to use, as it is not necessary to register with an email account. The answers here can also be improved over time and created into usable FAQs. Its popularity is also increasing at epic proportions, and at one point has even been called the second fastest growing domain in the United States in 2009.
Yahoo Answers rank second to answers.com, the website which owns Wikianswers, but the former is still often used because of the popularity of Yahoo.
Similarities and Differences
- Both sites offer Q&A services.
- Wikianswers is owned by Answers.com, while Yahoo Answers is under the website Yahoo.
- Yahoo Answers rank second as the most popular Q&A website, with Answers.com-the owners of Wikianswers-ranking first.
