From the Spartan interface they've wrapped around the service, to its cross-linked functionality, Yahoo! Experts is the latest example of how the giant exclamation mark leverages its platform to create new services apparently out of thin air. And when it comes doing that, Yahoo! is an expert among experts.
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Both services let users request answers and information from experts on specific topics and also offer their own expertise to the community. Beyond that, the services are quite different.
Yahoo! Experts is the simpler of the two. Users looking to share knowledge select a category and fill out an expert profile describing their expertise, background, and so on. Topics include Business & Finance, Health & Wellness, Sex & Romance, and the always-intriguing "much more." But say you're no expert and instead wish to seek out the wisdom, or Foolishness -- or would that be, the Yahooishness? -- of others? No problem!
After selecting your category, you can either post your question to the open forum for any passing expert to answer, or direct it to a particular expert via e-mail. And how do you choose among competing experts? Their track records are available in their public profiles, listed by category, and include all the answers they've given and the satisfaction ratings they've received from other users, from one to five stars.
The service is organized around an Expert Center, which gives users a personalized, sortable list of the questions the user has asked, the category, the number of answers received, and the date. Experts who elect to dispense their knowledge in realtime via Yahoo! Messenger are indicated with a smiley face.
Yahoo! Experts is instantly recognizable to anyone who has used Yahoo!, especially its e-mail, auctions, clubs, and other community-oriented features, including its much-maligned message boards. All in all, not much more than a slice-and-dice of the same old thing.
But from the Spartan interface wrapped around the service, to the cross-linked functionality it provides, Yahoo! Experts is the latest example of how the giant exclamation mark leverages its platform and infrastructure to create new services apparently out of thin air. And when it comes doing that, Yahoo! is an expert among experts.
A question-and-answer marketplace
NBCi.com is taking a different approach to its community-based expert service, which will be offered in partnership with Information Markets Corp. (IMC), a privately held information technology firm that will operate what NBCi calls its "question-and-answer marketplace." And "marketplace" is the operative word.
The as-yet unnamed service lets users ask questions and purchase answers from experts in the usual range of topics. When asking a question, Seekers (as they are called by IMC) set a target price of what the answer is worth to them. In return, registered Experts submit bids. Thus the games begin.
When launched, the info-auction service will be co-branded by NBCi.com and IMC and integrated across various topic channels at NBCi.com and into the site's search results. The NBCi.com portal was relaunched on Monday. The site now integrates Snap.com and Xoom.com under the single NBCi brand, following a year during which hoped-for synergies of a multi-brand approach failed to materialize.
IMC markets its information exchange system to websites on a co-branded and private-label basis. In its announcement today, NBCi said that it had acquired an undisclosed minority equity stake in the company. Other investors in Information Markets Corp. include America Online (NYSE: AOL) technology guru Esther Dyson, and Joe Kraus, one of the founders of Excite, now part of Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM).
Your Turn:
What do you make of these new expert services? Share your expertise on the Yahoo! and NBCi.com discussion boards.
Related Links:
Yahoo! on Sale, Rule Maker Portfolio, 9/11/00
NBC Internet Pares Back, Fool News, 8/9/00
Yahoo!'s Big Picture, Rule Maker Portfolio, 07/17/00
Evolution at Yahoo!, Rule Maker Portfolio, 7/6/00
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