Product Review: Yahoo Answers

Wouldn't it be nice at times to ask others their opinion on something private without the worrying of them spreading to others what you asked? Now you can thanks to the Internet and Yahoo Answers. It's pretty basic. Here's how it works:

If you have a yahoo account all you have to do in sign in and create a public username. I highly suggest you don't use your yahoo ID because your friends and family might notice your personal questions. If you don't have a yahoo account, it's really easy. All they need is a user name, password, e-mail address, location and you have to enter some letters and numbers to ensure a robot isn't creating an account. Yes, I know that sounds crazy but you must enter it in correctly or you won't be able to create an account.

Once you create your new username you can post a question. You have 110 characters to type your question. Then you submit and are brought to a page where you're allowed to add details. You're given 1000 characters here. Once you have your details written out you choose categories to put your question in. You can choose to have the replies to your question e-mailed as soon as their posted.

Yahoo Answers has a point system. For every question you asked, you are deducted 5 points. At the end of your question being open for replies, you decide which person has the best answer. For voting you earn 3 points. Just for opening an account on Yahoo Answers you earn a one time amount of 100 points. You earn one point daily for logging into Yahoo Answers as well.

If answering is more your thing, you'll earn 2 points and also lose two points for deleting an answer. If someone rates your answer as the best, you earn 10 points. So what do you get for all these points, nothing amazing. It's not money but rather thanks from Yahoo.

But you also get the privacy of asking online and getting answers within moments from others which is nice. You can ask any type of questions but be warned, some questions are definitely not suitable for young children to view. If you do have young children, monitor where they go on Yahoo Answers.

The background is a bright green color, sure to wake anyone up. If you're looking for a way to kill time or get some answers, Yahoo Answers so far isn't too bad and best of all it's free. You can check it out for yourself at http://answers.yahoo.com/