Mashup answers and friends
November 2, 2010 3:14 AM Subscribe
Asking for a non-MeFi friend: new business idea seeking creative input Combine the old Google Answers with Facebook - ask your friends for answers and offer a bounty for the best one.
Hello all you wonderful MeFi's,
One of my good geeky friends was telling me about a mash-up type of idea involving social networking and incentives. He hadn't heard of MeFi before (I know, I know), but gave me permission to pass it on to see A: if you might use it, B: how it could be improved, and C: if it's been done before / in use right now.
Every so often, my friend Patrick (not his real name) logs onto Facebook needing some specific information within his social network. The problem? Without an incentive, some people can't be bothered to help.
The idea basically combines Google Answers with Facebook, but would supposedly integrate into Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. So you're looking for an answer to a specific question - the best coffeeshop in Atlanta, or help making something.
You put in your request as you would a status update - in search of the best coffeeshop in Atlanta - and name a price / bounty for the best answer. (My friend suggested some sort of point system, but I suggested real money speaks louder). The requester would fund via Paypal, credit card, etc., just like Google Answers. The request only goes out to his social network or the people Patrick chooses. He could say 'open to answers from the whole world', if he chooses.
I suggested a sort of 'expert' system - add them to your 'people to ask' list, set it up to automatically add them, etc. etc.
So the answers come in, he picks the best one, clicks it as best answer, money transfers, yadda yadda yadda. The business would profit off of a transaction fee (like the non-refundable ebay listing fee), and perhaps a float (the interest off of the accumulated balance).
So that's the spiel - here are the questions:
1: would you use it? In Patrick's mind, it would integrate with all the major social networks, so you wouldn't have to create yet another account.
2: how could it be improved?
3: have you heard it being done before, or is it in use right now?
Hello all you wonderful MeFi's,
One of my good geeky friends was telling me about a mash-up type of idea involving social networking and incentives. He hadn't heard of MeFi before (I know, I know), but gave me permission to pass it on to see A: if you might use it, B: how it could be improved, and C: if it's been done before / in use right now.
Every so often, my friend Patrick (not his real name) logs onto Facebook needing some specific information within his social network. The problem? Without an incentive, some people can't be bothered to help.
The idea basically combines Google Answers with Facebook, but would supposedly integrate into Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. So you're looking for an answer to a specific question - the best coffeeshop in Atlanta, or help making something.
You put in your request as you would a status update - in search of the best coffeeshop in Atlanta - and name a price / bounty for the best answer. (My friend suggested some sort of point system, but I suggested real money speaks louder). The requester would fund via Paypal, credit card, etc., just like Google Answers. The request only goes out to his social network or the people Patrick chooses. He could say 'open to answers from the whole world', if he chooses.
I suggested a sort of 'expert' system - add them to your 'people to ask' list, set it up to automatically add them, etc. etc.
So the answers come in, he picks the best one, clicks it as best answer, money transfers, yadda yadda yadda. The business would profit off of a transaction fee (like the non-refundable ebay listing fee), and perhaps a float (the interest off of the accumulated balance).
So that's the spiel - here are the questions:
1: would you use it? In Patrick's mind, it would integrate with all the major social networks, so you wouldn't have to create yet another account.
2: how could it be improved?
3: have you heard it being done before, or is it in use right now?
Best answer: To me, the point of friendship is that you don't have to pay for advice and that doing so would reduce your friendship to something lesser. I would find it extremely weird to be giving or taking $5 from my friends to answer a question like what the best coffee shop in Atlanta is.* I mean, I wouldn't do that in real life, so why should I online?
A "Best Answer" kind of thing like Ask Metafilter has would be all the reward that any actual friend should hope for. (You could always go with a point system, but then if points mean anything you'd probably get people gaming the system, with one person setting up fake questions so someone else can run up their score).
posted by ctab at 4:13 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
A "Best Answer" kind of thing like Ask Metafilter has would be all the reward that any actual friend should hope for. (You could always go with a point system, but then if points mean anything you'd probably get people gaming the system, with one person setting up fake questions so someone else can run up their score).
posted by ctab at 4:13 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: As for #3: it looks like Facebook themselves are in the process of doing something similar: see this Metatalk. The job posting is here.
posted by MythMaker at 4:13 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by MythMaker at 4:13 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I would find it extremely weird to be giving or taking $5 from my friends to answer a question like what the best coffee shop in Atlanta is.* I mean, I wouldn't do that in real life, so why should I online?
Yep. I would only pay a one-time $5 charge for this and -- wait a minute... you say your friend hasn't heard of Metafilter?
posted by thejoshu at 4:43 AM on November 2, 2010
Yep. I would only pay a one-time $5 charge for this and -- wait a minute... you say your friend hasn't heard of Metafilter?
posted by thejoshu at 4:43 AM on November 2, 2010
Best answer: So.... basically Aardvark?
posted by geekchic at 5:50 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by geekchic at 5:50 AM on November 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: 1: would you use it? In Patrick's mind, it would integrate with all the major social networks, so you wouldn't have to create yet another account.
I think you've already got Facebook Questions, Uclue, Yahoo answers, stack exchange, WikiAnswers, AskReddit, and of course Ask Metafilter - not to mention defunct services like Google answers. I could use any of those sites first.
On facebook you've got other competition as well: I can just directly ask my friends for free. I don't know how much a cash incentive would improve the answers I was getting - friendship doesn't always work like that. Of course, I don't have any hard evidence of that.
I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't mortgage my house to get this idea off the ground.
posted by Mike1024 at 5:59 AM on November 2, 2010
I think you've already got Facebook Questions, Uclue, Yahoo answers, stack exchange, WikiAnswers, AskReddit, and of course Ask Metafilter - not to mention defunct services like Google answers. I could use any of those sites first.
On facebook you've got other competition as well: I can just directly ask my friends for free. I don't know how much a cash incentive would improve the answers I was getting - friendship doesn't always work like that. Of course, I don't have any hard evidence of that.
I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't mortgage my house to get this idea off the ground.
posted by Mike1024 at 5:59 AM on November 2, 2010
Best answer: I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that, at least with regards to (1), you're asking the wrong crowd here. We would probably all try askMe first if a non-incentivized query to our friends and acquaintances didn't gain any traction.
posted by juv3nal at 10:57 AM on November 2, 2010
posted by juv3nal at 10:57 AM on November 2, 2010
Response by poster: From the OP:
Patrick just discovered what Mechanical Turk was, so this might give you a hint on his level of internet savvy. Certainly some people have an unpaid incentive to help a friend... but does a paid incentive bump up the priority of a more mundane request, or a request coming from an acquaintance?
I see here that Facebook Answers is coming to the US "in the next few weeks". Aardvark looked good, as did Quora - it's probably best to wait and see what happens with them. Thanks all for the non-incentivized opinions :)
posted by chrisinseoul at 8:13 PM on November 2, 2010
Patrick just discovered what Mechanical Turk was, so this might give you a hint on his level of internet savvy. Certainly some people have an unpaid incentive to help a friend... but does a paid incentive bump up the priority of a more mundane request, or a request coming from an acquaintance?
I see here that Facebook Answers is coming to the US "in the next few weeks". Aardvark looked good, as did Quora - it's probably best to wait and see what happens with them. Thanks all for the non-incentivized opinions :)
posted by chrisinseoul at 8:13 PM on November 2, 2010
What do you mean it's coming in the next few weeks? It's been here for a while now. Did you mean a country besides the US?
posted by tantivy at 11:40 PM on November 2, 2010
posted by tantivy at 11:40 PM on November 2, 2010
Metafilter's own Jessamyn West wrote an interesting article about her experiences as a paid-per-answer researcher for Google Answers, and the mechanics of getting paid.
What do you mean it's coming in the next few weeks? It's been here for a while now.
Previously for me questions turned up when I did a regular facebook search - now I can't see anything. Is it still there for you, tantivy?
posted by Mike1024 at 10:58 AM on November 3, 2010
What do you mean it's coming in the next few weeks? It's been here for a while now.
Previously for me questions turned up when I did a regular facebook search - now I can't see anything. Is it still there for you, tantivy?
posted by Mike1024 at 10:58 AM on November 3, 2010
Questions are definitely still there, but I'm not sure if the search functionality has changed. I see questions pop up in my feed and I see a box called "Questions" (below "Events" and "Sponsored") on the right hand side of my home page.
posted by tantivy at 11:54 PM on November 8, 2010
posted by tantivy at 11:54 PM on November 8, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:52 AM on November 2, 2010