Askville is a new site from Amazon that promises to let users ask and answer questions.  You can see that site here. 

Now, this is merely the latest in a line of sites that aimed to be a one-stop repository for all information.  Google tried first with their own Answers product.  It actually let you bid on what price you’d be willing to pay for the answer to your question, and then if any of the corps of “answerers” were interested in doing the research to find your answer, they’d take the job.  It ultimately flopped, because…as it turns out…people want answers; they’re just not willing to pay for them. 

Yahoo has an Answers service as well.  I experimented with it a few times.  It’s devolved greatly into a MySpace-like haven for teenagers to ask things like “What color dress should I wear to prom?” or “Is my boyfriend cheating on me?” or even “Which football team will win tonight’s big game?”  Sure, there are some “legitimate” questions and answers on Yahoo Answers, but they are few and far between. 

Pardon me for wondering aloud here, but…if Yahoo and Google (two of the most recognizable web brands) can’t make an Answers product work, why does Amazon think they can do any better? 

It doesn’t matter why–clearly they think they can do better. 

You have to sign up to even use the thing, which isn’t too bad, I guess.  I went ahead and created an account because, hey…who doesn’t like free answers?  Since I’m in the market for a piece of exercise equipment, I asked a question about product recommendations.  However, after submitting my question, I was told that I will receive “at least 5 answers in the next 7 days.”  Yikes!  So it’s not a fast service, then, eh?

In contrast, the Yahoo Answers site I just ripped on a second ago returned a very useful answer to the same query in about five minutes.  So…you can come back here in seven days to see if I got any decent answers, or you can just use Yahoo Answers.  Or Wikipedia.  Or your really smart uncle.