Google Q&A
Google has started offering a Q&A service through its search results, returning immediate answers (a la Answers.com) instead of just search results. They claim that it will work for finding information about "celebrities, countries of the world, the planets, the elements, electronics, movies, and anything else we’ve thought of so far."
I’d have to disagree just a bit about that. While "When was Tom Brokaw born?" brings back an answer from Wikipedia, "Who is Tom Brokaw" gets me nothing. Experimenting with other questions brought back similiarly disappointing results (where is Mars vs. what is Mars). You have to be extremely specific and kinda lucky to actually get an answer.
For some sample questions that it does work for, see the Google Weblog.
April 13th, 2005 at 1:50 pm
An answer engine that I link that does better than most with more sophisticated questions is:
http://www.brainboost.com/
Besides, I like their graphic.
April 18th, 2005 at 8:24 am
Hmmm…I tried out Brain Boost, but still find answers.com to do better with the questions I’ve asked it.