Yahoo on Thursday released, in beta, Yahoo Answers, a service that lets registered users post and answer questions that may not be easily handled through keyword searches, thus adding a community element to search, writes TechWeb. Questions and answers are archived and categorized by topic to make them searchable. The latest questions and answers on selected topics can be received via RSS feeds. Users can vote on the best answer to their questions, with "experts" in various topics likely emerging as a result.

Yahoo plans to integrate the content that it collects with its other sites, such as Local, Travel, and Shopping, writes Red Herring, which quotes Kelsey Group analyst Greg Sterling as saying the service also provides great opportunities for targeted advertising.

For one, users' registration info will populate Yahoo's database of information, allowing it to better track user behavior. Moreover, users are more likely to spend time on the Answers site.

The more immediate opportunity, however, would come when people ask others for reviews as they make purchasing decisions. "Wouldn't an advertiser love to get access to people as they're making that decision?" Sterling is quoted as saying. "'What's the best laptop under $1,000?' Boom. There's a targeting opportunity."

Yahoo Answers is not the first such service (in the marketing realm, for example, see the MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange).

Rival Google, too, offers a fee-based service - Google Answers. Users tell researchers how much they're willing to pay for answers, and queries and research are posted on the Google Answers website.