Comments on: Aardvark is completely changing how I get answers to questions http://www.hardknoxlife.com/2009/05/26/aardvark-is-completely-changing-how-i-get-answers-to-questions/ A Brand Management blog by Dave Knox @daveknox Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:53:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Aardvark Makes Crowdsourcing Your Social Graph Easy | Social Media Explorer http://www.hardknoxlife.com/2009/05/26/aardvark-is-completely-changing-how-i-get-answers-to-questions/comment-page-1/#comment-2105 Aardvark Makes Crowdsourcing Your Social Graph Easy | Social Media Explorer Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:02:12 +0000 http://www.hardknoxlife.com/?p=1620#comment-2105 [...] Aardvark Is Completely Changing How I Get Answers To Questions (Hard Knox Life) [...] [...] Aardvark Is Completely Changing How I Get Answers To Questions (Hard Knox Life) [...]

]]> By: Jonathan Lister http://www.hardknoxlife.com/2009/05/26/aardvark-is-completely-changing-how-i-get-answers-to-questions/comment-page-1/#comment-1001 Jonathan Lister Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:23:19 +0000 http://www.hardknoxlife.com/?p=1620#comment-1001 Having said that, I think the IM integration is totally cool. Having said that, I think the IM integration is totally cool.

]]> By: Jonathan Lister http://www.hardknoxlife.com/2009/05/26/aardvark-is-completely-changing-how-i-get-answers-to-questions/comment-page-1/#comment-1000 Jonathan Lister Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:20:42 +0000 http://www.hardknoxlife.com/?p=1620#comment-1000 I would agree with Mark, and say that I think the challenge is to improve the experience with Twitter (or other general-purpose messaging channels) rather than create a closed network. I would agree with Mark, and say that I think the challenge is to improve the experience with Twitter (or other general-purpose messaging channels) rather than create a closed network.

]]> By: Mark Celsor http://www.hardknoxlife.com/2009/05/26/aardvark-is-completely-changing-how-i-get-answers-to-questions/comment-page-1/#comment-904 Mark Celsor Thu, 28 May 2009 02:37:41 +0000 http://www.hardknoxlife.com/?p=1620#comment-904 I actually had a rather disappointing experience with it back in March. After setting up my preferences I asked it a few basic general knowlege (Googleable) questions to try it out and all of the questions came back unanswered. It then proceded to IM me constantly with question requests. When I would accept them the questions would be incredibly obscure, be outside the topics I specified or essentially be requests for multi-part research projects. I never got a single question that I was able to answer, which was terrible for my self esteem. :) I found myself getting annoyed everytime I would see an Aardvark message, dismissing them without even reading the topic, then using the "away" function to temporarily turn off messages and eventually trying delete my account completely (which was actually not possible). I feel that general purpose social networks like Twitter are still much better ways to get answers to non-Googlable questions. The idea of having an automated gatekeeper analyzing the text in your questions and sending them out to strangers feels very closed and it doesn't seem to spark conversations and normal human interactions that make people feel good about themselves and the product. The addition of paid media placements at this point would make the product feel even colder. I actually had a rather disappointing experience with it back in March. After setting up my preferences I asked it a few basic general knowlege (Googleable) questions to try it out and all of the questions came back unanswered. It then proceded to IM me constantly with question requests. When I would accept them the questions would be incredibly obscure, be outside the topics I specified or essentially be requests for multi-part research projects. I never got a single question that I was able to answer, which was terrible for my self esteem. :) I found myself getting annoyed everytime I would see an Aardvark message, dismissing them without even reading the topic, then using the “away” function to temporarily turn off messages and eventually trying delete my account completely (which was actually not possible).

I feel that general purpose social networks like Twitter are still much better ways to get answers to non-Googlable questions. The idea of having an automated gatekeeper analyzing the text in your questions and sending them out to strangers feels very closed and it doesn’t seem to spark conversations and normal human interactions that make people feel good about themselves and the product. The addition of paid media placements at this point would make the product feel even colder.

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