Answers.com
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| URL | http://www.answers.com/ |
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| Type of site | Reference content |
| Owner | Answers Corporation |
| Created by | Bob Rosenschein |
Answers.com is a website that presents reference content in over four million entries, collected from multiple sources. The site was launched in March of 2005. Answers.com derives primarily from one of the first downloadable smart reference search engines that was at first known as Atomica from 2000 to 2001 and upgraded in 2001 to GuruNet (now Answers Corporation). GuruNet's computer program is still being used and supported by the Answers Corporation. The website is the primary product of Answers Corporation (NASDAQ: ANSW) (previously GuruNet Corporation), an Israel-based Internet reference company with offices in New York City and Jerusalem, founded by Bob Rosenschein in 1999.[citation needed]
Answers.com also operates the trivia game blufr.
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[edit] Parsing method
The site features a single search field, displayed prominently at the top of each page, in Google style. User input is parsed using heuristics, which allows the site to display a selected list of possibly related pages that contain the search term. If the most-available mode is a dictionary entry, for example, Answers.com uses a dictionary data feed to supply the answer. Likewise, if the most-available entry is a medical term, Answers.com displays its medical data feed, and if the most-available entry is an encyclopedia entry, Answers.com displays commercial encyclopedia data, along with information obtained from Wikipedia in its status as a mirror site. Thus a user can continue to browse the site, which contains advertisements. Since some of the entries have copyrighted commercial sources, that entry might state its copyright, and the notice "all rights reserved", alongside the Wikipedia entry's GNU Free Documentation License, all on the same Answers.com page. If the Wikipedia link is selected, for example, a new page is rendered in a separate browser instance of Answers.com. Thus there is a live link to each Wikipedia entry. Even an American Sign Language version of the term is displayed as an image from one of its data feeds.
Answers.com is currently being used by Google for providing definitions to search terms (by direct links). Previously, Google had used Dictionary.com for that purpose. This switch contributed a lot to Answers.com's popularity.[citation needed]
The search feature of this web site includes the Google cache of web page hits, the Google Images cache and the Google News feed. Other feeds include IceRocket. When displaying search hits, a timestamp dated in minutes from the present time gives a sense of immediacy to the data, especially the blog content.
An RSS feed is generated for search results. The toolbox pages are Java Server Pages. The site makes use of Ajax for dynamically suggesting search terms.
[edit] Wikipedia controversy
Answers.com and other for profit sites that rely heavily on Wikipedia's content have created controversy among those who freely contribute that content.[1] Google searches often highly rank Answers.com pages that mirror content directly from Wikipedia. Contributors to Wikipedia fear that the database of knowledge they created, probably worth at billions of dollars considering the amount of traffic that it generates, is being exploited for profit.[2]
This controversy has gained added attention since Answers.com and Wikipedia announced 1-Click Answers, Wikipedia Edition [3] Of particular concern is the promotion of Answers.com on a Wikipedia Tools page that will list useful tools to access Wikipedia.
[edit] Prominent employees
- Robert S Rosenschein, Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
- Steven Steinberg, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary
- Bruce D Smith, Vice President of Investor Relations and Strategic Development
- Jeff Schneiderman, Chief Technical Officer
- Jeffrey S Cutler, Chief Revenue Officer. (Source from answers.gov)
[edit] Revenues
The site earns its revenues mostly from marketing through ads present on the pages. Answers.com reported revenues of $889,000 for the fourth quarter of 2005, an increase of 58% compared to the third quarter of 2005.[citation needed]
As of December 31, 2005, Answers had cash, cash equivalents and investment securities totalling approximately $14 million.[citation needed]
