Linkedin Answers

Linnkedin has a new service called Answers. This is really, really great! (People can actually see your answers to other people, on your Profile page -- see picture above).

I use it to show off, oops, I mean, share my (very limited) knowledge on a (very limited) range of topics.

I guess Linkedin saw the success of Yahoo! Answers, and decided to launch a service that would allow users to easily share their knowledge while solidly establishing their expertise within the Linkedin community.

Of course, Linkedin Answers is very different from Yahoo! Answers. For example:

1. Askers and answerers on Linkedin are not anonymous. Their profile is publicly accessible, so this works as an incentive for answerers to write thoughtful and informative answers.
2. On Linkedin, you can decide to network with or email other people after you read their answers. This is not possible with Yahoo! Answers (the best you can do is send them a note via Yahoo! Answers' messaging service.
3. Both the questions and answers on Linkedin are general much more career-relevant and business-oriented than on Yahoo! Answers.

Overall, one could say that Linkedin Answers is the more robust, corporate version of Yahoo! Answers, which seems to be the consumer version of open-source Q&A board.