Marketing Pilgrim

I would never have thought Yahoo Answers would turn out to be such a big hit for the company, especially as Google Answers has pretty much been stagnant since its launch. However, Forbes reports Lehman Brothers took a look at Yahoo Answers and said it could have a positive long-term positive impact on Yahoo’s position.

One of the main differences between Google and Yahoo? Yahoo chose to tap into the community and have users post questions for free, relying on the community’s desire to help a fellow netizen out, without being compensated. Meanwhile, Google chose to monetize Google Answers right away, with a fee for the question and a revenue share with the person answering.

Looks like Google chose the wrong model.