Yahoo Answers gets its own standalone iOS app

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited November 2016
Debuted clandestinely on the iOS App Store earlier this year under another name, Yahoo Answers this week launched as a standalone app providing users native access to the popular, if not entirely accurate, Q&A site.




Yahoo Answers Now officially launched on Monday as a fast and easy way to crowd source answers to "unsearchable questions that you can't find on the web," a hallmark of the web service. With largely unfiltered questions and answers pouring in from a diverse community, Yahoo Answers is usually more amusing as it is useful.

Like its web-based progenitor, Yahoo Answers Now lets users search for and answer questions -- or answer new queries -- with rich media like photos. The app also features a homepage of sorts to keep track of questions posed, answers furnished, starred responses and follower metrics.

Interestingly, Tech Crunch reports Yahoo Answers Now technically hit the App Store this summer under the name Yahoo Hive, an app designed to stress test the standalone software before it went live this week.

Yahoo Answers Now is a free download from the iOS App Store, but activation requires an invite code. Those interested in signing up can send an email request to [email protected].

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    jblongzjblongz Posts: 167member
    A decade late.  WTF
  • Reply 2 of 11
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    jblongz said:
    A decade late.  WTF
    I know! 

    What is the point? 
  • Reply 3 of 11
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    WHY?

    have any of you actually read the answers on here? It's a joke
  • Reply 4 of 11
    nailedtothexnailedtothex Posts: 45member
    cali said:
    WHY?

    have any of you actually read the answers on here? It's a joke
    the answers? Look at the first yahoo question... "who is luke cage and where did he come?" 

    What the hell...

    yahoo...
  • Reply 5 of 11
    qwweraqwwera Posts: 281member
    Anyone who's ever been on the internet over the past 15 years or so has clicked on one of these useless links and learned to never click on these links ever again.

    Now there is an app for this? Oh Marissa, I gave you so much credit because you were hot. Will I never learn.
    edited November 2016 tokyojimu
  • Reply 6 of 11
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,040member
    Yahoo Answers is one of the worst sites on the Internet. It's basically where people who are too ignorant to use Google/Bing/Yahoo/DuckDuckGo/whatever. But maybe the app will do well with mindless idiots.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    Finally an app I can use for comedy if I'm bored. 
  • Reply 8 of 11
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    mpantone said:
    Yahoo Answers is one of the worst sites on the Internet. It's basically where people who are too ignorant to use Google/Bing/Yahoo/DuckDuckGo/whatever. But maybe the app will do well with mindless idiots.

    I have to agree, the questions people ask is amazing, I do not understand why someone would ask how a feature on their new car works, why not read the car manual. The answers are even more stupid than the questions most of the time. I guess it makes some people feel like they have value to answers someone's question even though it is wrong.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    CamoCrazyCamoCrazy Posts: 2member

    I tried sending an email to the specified address, but still no response. Been waiting since 1pm Eastern Time. Is there a problem with the service or do I have to include a subject and a message as well? I did not do the latter two because all it does is say send email. Also, first time commenting since I just created an account but been a devoted AI reader for quite some time. 

  • Reply 10 of 11
    stanthemanstantheman Posts: 332member
    Yahoo Answers is not such a great source, but it was never meant to serve as an encyclopedia. Encyclopedias don't provide tips on getting your dog to vomit after ingesting poison, or the names of Brad and Angelina's kids, or other day-to-day matters. A lot of the answers are juvenile, guesses and imprecise. But by the time I arrive there, I am usually thankful to find anything at all. Beggars can't be choosers.

    If Yahoo is (finally) serious putting a few resources behind its crowd-sourcing approach to providing snippets of information on unconventional, idiosyncratic topics, then it should recruit a few hundred experts to participate during the coming months (at least), and compensate them for their efforts. Spend a million dollars. A new app without better quality will not generate the buzz needed to turn things around.

    Yahoo Answers should also strike partnerships with product manufacturers and food makers, so that their expertise proliferates more readily among consumers. Right now, the widest range of consumer information is found (scattered, discoverable) at Amazon.com.

    Whenever possible, those posting Yahoo Answers should provide links to related sources of information they know about. We do not need yet another website peddling purposely fake knowledge to add to that already being distributed by criminals and idiots. To minimize that, Yahoo Answers should collect reader complaints on fake postings, and after a certain threshold is crossed ban the individual from posting again. It should also post an asterisk/footnote by every comment that individual has posted in the past: "This was posted by a member later discovered to post a high proportion of unreliable comments. Reader beware."
  • Reply 11 of 11
    CamoCrazyCamoCrazy Posts: 2member

    I finally just received the invite code. Took 36 hours. That is the longest wait time I have ever experienced for any service I am affiliated with. I like to test new apps, so this intrigues me. Besides, my iPhone is 128 GB so I need to fill it up. Any other ideas of apps?

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