By Benecia Beyer
When I was growing up, we had a set of encyclopedias 
to go to and find our answers to our questions. No computers, no online search engines. It was a favorite thing for me to do on a rainy or snowy afternoon -- to take one of the encyclopedias and just look thru the pages and see what I could find. A few years later, I used these for reference for homework assignments.
It seemed a lot easier to be able to find your specific answer to a question. Today - I often find myself frustrated by "googling" a topic and after clicking on numerous links - I've gotten so far from my original search that I wonder what I was searching for.
Recently, I ran across this wonderful little gem - our modern day's technological version of an encyclopedia: www.answers.com. It's a free reference search service. Instead of a search engine that serves up a long list of links that you must chase down, Answers.com displays quick, snapshot answers based upon content from more than 100 authoritative encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries and atlases.
Here is an example of of how Answers.com differs from normal search services. Suppose you want information on the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model. In Google, if you type in "Black Scholes", you get a long list of links (of which the second, third and fourth had "page not found" errors). There are links to books about the Black Scholes Model and links to Black Scholes calculators. All these sights might be helpful in learning about Black Scholes, but you have to try a number of the links before you find a simple outline of the formula.
The results from a search on Black Scholes in Answers.com is very different. You see a cleanly-formatted page that includes a definition from the Investopedia. Then there is a long article on Black Scholes, with the basic formula, the extended formula, and the derivation of the forumula from the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
Finally - a place to find real instant information instead of links of pages where you may or may not find the information. Try it - you might like it!
Hey, thanks for that awesome explanation of Answers.com! Couldn't have said it better ourselves...
Liz
Chief BlogWatcher @ Answers.com™
Posted by: Liz | December 03, 2006 at 02:14 AM