Questions Answered from A-Z at Amazon.com's Askville

The latest trend of sharing knowledge via online Q&A communities has surfaced from the depths of Amazon. The site, dubbed for the world's longest river will quench the thirst of knowledge-seekers. And, know-it-alls have the chance to earn Quest coins for sharing their knowledge, while helping a brother or sister out.

Like Yahoo! Answers, Amazon gives registered users the ability to ask, answer or both. Amazon's version isAskville.comsubsidiary of the online book giant, which is still in its beta stage. Unlike Yahoo! answers, Askville has some very cool features.

ASKING

Registered users at Amazon.com can ask and/or answer a question of up to 120 characters, with 1000 extra characters to add details. Askers choose a category for their question. The question remains active for seven days, and up to five questions are given based on difficulty of the question or interest from the community.

Users can track their questions via an activity page.

Once the question receives five answers, askers rate the question great, good, okay, wrong, or lame. You also choose the best answer.

If you are not happy with any of the five, ask it again. It's free, after all.

ANSWERING

You can browse through all questions, or select categories you are an expert in. If a question is unclear, you can ask for clarification. Answers can be 120 characters long, but you are also given a details box to add 1000 more characters.

A very cool feature is that you can add a "widget" to your answers. You can insert video or products from Amazon and you can even move them around to make them appear the way you want before posting.

Aside from the asker giving your answer a rating, other users can also give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Rewards for Answerers

Experience points are given (or lost) each time you answer:

15- Best Answer

10- Great

5- Good

1 - Okay

- 5 Wrong

- 10 Lame

If there is a tie, the user's thumbs ratings will break the tie.

Those who answer questions can move up experience levels to earn bonus points. There are six levels to move up (or down!)

QUEST COINS

Quest coins are a virtual currency available to Askville 'residents.' They are given in various increments for asking questions, answering questions, getting ratings, adding widgets and more. Coins can also be lost of getting lame answers!

Amazon.com is going to launch Questville.com later this year, and there, Quest Coins will be able to be redeemed for fun things. While the site does not say what the coins can be used for, they do say they will not be able to be used to buy items.

OTHER FEATURES

Askville.com also features discussion boards for each question, as well as email for Q&A seekers to privately message each other.

Amazon.com started as a place to buy books. Now, they sell everything under the sun. Futhermore- now they have the answer for almost anything!