Editing Google Answers (section)

== Description ==
=== Process ===
Google Answers was designed as an extension to the conventional search: rather than doing the search themselves, users would pay someone else to do the search. Anyone could ask questions, offer a price for an answer, and researchers, who were called Google Answers Researchers or GARs, answered them. Researchers were not Google employees, but contractors that were required to complete an application process to be approved to answer for the site. They were limited in number (according to Google, there were more than 500 Researchers; in practice, there were fewer active Researchers). The application process tested their research and communication abilities.

Researchers with low ratings could be fired, a policy which encouraged eloquence and accuracy. Also, Google stated that people who commented might be selected to become Researchers, therefore inspiring high-quality comments. For a Researcher, a question was answered by logging into a special researchers page and then "locking" a question they wanted to answer. This act of "locking" claimed the question for that researcher. Questions worth less than $100 could be locked for up to four hours, and questions worth more than $100 could be locked up to eight hours at a time in order to be properly answered. A Researcher could only lock one question at a time.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

Asker-accepted answers cost $2 to $200. Google retained 25% of the researcher's reward and a 50-cent fee per question. In addition to the researcher's fees, a client who was satisfied with the answer could also leave a tip of up to $100.

In Google Search, when a user would put "why?" at the end of a search query, Google would show a link to Google Answers where the answer could be provided for a fee.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xyweb.net/news_view-asp-id_287/|title=Google最新搜索技巧|website=Xyweb.net|language=zh|access-date=15 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501191907/http://www.xyweb.net/news_view-asp-id_287/|archive-date=1 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Question structure ===

* The client's question, to which the Researcher could respond with a request for clarification if any part of a question was unclear.
* The answer remained empty if the question had not yet been answered and only a Researcher could post an answer. Any Researcher could answer any question, although askers could specifically request a certain Researcher in the title or body of their question. After the answer was posted, the client could communicate with the Researcher to ask for clarification of the answer; the client could also rate the answer on a one- to five-star system and tip the Researcher for a job well done.
* The comment section provided an area where any registered user, Researchers and non-Researchers alike, could comment on the question. Some questions were "answered" in comments before a Researcher could answer. Naturally, this section, too, could be left empty, if no comments had been posted.

The pages of Google Answers' website ranked extremely well in Google's search results, and so the commenting system was widely exploited by the SEO community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seo-article.com/seo-articles/how-to-get-a-top-google-ranking.htm|title=A Back Road Loophole For Getting a -Top Google Ranking|website=Seo-article.com|date=2004|access-date=15 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325212908/http://www.seo-article.com/seo-articles/how-to-get-a-top-google-ranking.htm|archive-date=25 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Rules ===
Google's policies prohibited answering questions that would obviously lead to or contain:

* [[Copyright]] infringement and [[privacy]] violations.
* [[Plagiarism]] in homework assignments.
* Discussion of Google Answers itself, or about Google policies and mechanisms ([[PageRank]], for example).
* Links to [[Internet pornography|adult oriented sites]].
* Promotion of illegal activities.