May 18, 2004

licensing answers

Google service idea: they should license the Google Answers platform on a hosted basis to third parties. Knowledge heavy communities (large consulting firms, technology user bases, travel enthusiasts or even hobby groups) could develop their own FAQ base on a branded answers platform, and provide an economic (or points-based rewards) incentive to boot. I’m an iPod fanatic and looking for the best way to sync Outlook contact data to my device? The discussion forums at iPodLounge are great for roundabout discussion on preferred headphones, but not so great at task-oriented problem solving. Meanwhile, the mother ship Google Answers site isn’t topic specific enough to attract the loyal readership of hard core iPod fanatics. Sites would pay a hosting fee, revenue share on the Answer fees, and Google builds higher quality content for indexing. (This was all Judith’s idea.)