Techcrunch reminds us that Ask is still around and they too are riding the question and answer bandwagon.  On a quick sidenote, why did they ever off Jeeves? I liked Jeeves…he was a solid brand.  People still refer to Ask as Ask Jeeves…but what do I know.

Anyway, back to the qnas.  What?  You didn’t know that there was a rush to become the first Yahoo Answers (because, really, Yahoo just can’t be the first of anything these days).  Well, in addition to Mahalo Answers, Aardvark and Answers.com, there’s Blurtit, Answerbag, Hunch, Sodahead and probably dozens more.  Like holy crap it’s a crowded arena!

With so many sites competing to solve the same problem, you’d think they could do a better job of answering questions.  Two overarching issues with most of these sites are

• Lack of question management (leading to the same questions being asked repeatedly)
• Focusing on the question-asking aspect as the social engine

This is why I like Hunch’s approach of utilizing machine learning to answer questions.  Too bad their user experience sucks.

As for the latter issue, qna sites would fare better by following Yelp’s model and creating a community of answerers.  Because no one cares about your question.  But I’ll gladly tell you what I think about your question.

A better experience can be had with question and answer sites.  Answers are the key.