May 16th, 2006
New, improved Answers.com
One of my favorite tools just got better. Answers.com provides answers (not search result listings) to queries, covering about 3 million topics. It has about 100 data sources, such as Wikipedia, Houghton Mifflin, Columbia University Press, Thomson Gale, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, MarketWatch, Investopedia, and AccuWeather. Alt-clicking on a word takes you to the Answers.com Web site. The just released version 2.0 1-Click Answers, a free Windows download, joined the parade of AJAXed interfaces (also see Yahoo’s new home page), which emphasizes convenience over page views. Instead of taking you to a Web page, version 2.0 pops up an information bubble, called AnswerTips, on the page you are reading. The service is ad supported, but the text ads at the bottom of the AnswerTips bubble thankfully don’t get in the way.
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
