h a l f b a k e r yI think this would be a great thing to not do.
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With the vast hugeness (is that a word?) of the web, would people
or companies pay to have someone find information for them?
Some of us just seem to have information-gathering oriented minds.
It would be kinda like an "Ask Jeeves" concept, but with a real
person being paid real dollars doing
the work.
Offer a 1 hour service, guaranteed, or your money back.
Looksmart-Live
http://live.looksmart.com/
Existing service, as suggested by "magnetbox" [eagle, May 08 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]
baked
http://answers.google.com/
[egnor, Oct 04 2004]
Experts Exchange
http://www.experts-exchange.com/
users offer points for tech solutions from other users... what we're discussing is a similar but much wider ranging concept [intellimat, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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America is getting lazier and lazier...... |
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It seems to me like it would be better to compile a more comprehensive public search engine. |
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Several ongoing efforts and many
failed projects have attempted to
do exactly this. Some of them
were free; some of them required
the user to pay; some of them had
their own funny money. |
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I don't think it's a matter of people being lazy. |
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Convenience, i.e., time saving, is the reason behind the
success of fast food, convenience stores and the eventual
success of Internet shopping. People are willing to pay
a premium for convenience. |
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If you're good at doing something, and that something
is what people want done, then it's marketable. |
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Bit late to the discussion here (maybe it'll get picked up again), but how do you determine the guarantee? This is a service we've thought about, but this is a stumbling block. I don't want to pay someone to find stuff I've already found, but that may be all that's out there. This service just spent an hour research stuff I've already done - they want to get paid, but I don't want to pay, because I already HAD that info. What could you be guaranteeing? Accuracy? Or simply the fact that the task was performed? |
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It would work best, I think, as a service you offer on a long
term basis to a client organization, such as a law firm,
municipal/gov. office, etc., or perhaps a publishing
company or individual author. |
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You would develop a business relationship with the
organization where you do all of the research needed
for a monthly fee. If they're not satisfied with your services,
then they don't renew the contract or pay you for the next month. |
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Publishing houses already employ such people -- and
with the size & confusion of the Internet, the service
is perhaps now useful to other organizations. |
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You could specialize in certain areas -- law, medicine,
computers, history, art, etc. |
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http://live.looksmart.com - You don't get paid for it (unless you work at Looksmart), but if you're really good at finding things on the net and want to share the wealth... |
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Looksmart-live, as suggested by Magnetbox, is a pretty
good free service. |
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But I question whether or not the "points" offered by
looksmart to the researchers is enough incentive to
make them do thorough research. |
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If I ask "What's a dung beatle?", I want more than
"A bug." for an answer. |
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Have you ever posted a difficult question to a newsgroup
and then received no reply, or incomplete reply? My
feeling is that the other members are too busy to _really_
think about and research the answer. But if it was their
highly-paid job, the research would be done. |
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as soon as you figure out how to charge for it, Yahoo! will do it for free. |
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Tried, failed. Numerous sites attempted to do this back in the dot-com craze. |
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