Yahoo launched its own answers site. Not sure whether Amazon came out with its version first. As you might recall, I asked a question using the Amazon site, Askville. And I’m happy to report it provided a good answer.

Since then, I’ve asked some tougher questions and gotten no responses. Answers sites aren’t a panacea for obscure questions yet.

The Yahoo site came to my attention because when a user posted a link to HeraldTribune.com, we got a heap of refer traffic. These answers sites might be an effective marketing tool.