Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by endisneigh 1714 days ago
I ask people on the internet.

What I'd love is a search engine where queries are actually answered by people. Not something like Stackoverflow, but rather questions that are structured such that there's a single canonical answer that is either a link or less than some arbitrary number of characters.

Rather than up or downvoting things, these queries, questions and answers respectively are made available and by selecting an existing query mapping to a question and answer strengthens the relationship.

Since involving actual people all of the time would be slow, the incentive would be that your questions are prioritized if you answered questions yourself.

Obviously easier said than done, but I think it's the future of search.

2 comments

Stackoverflow is a dumpster fire.

Generally systems where people volunteer answers have the same problem as the wider web. People who don't know what they are talking about but who sound convincing get their answers voted up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivore

wikipedia was also previously often referenced when doing a google search.

Does anybody know of a good search engine which indexes wiki pages?

Maybe because I search from my phone
Stackoverflow has help me many times

With real useful answers. As late as today.

yup - that's why I'd advocate for not using a voting system.
The voting system might not be perfect. And no top answer is not always the good one. But the good answer is most often there.
Where?
It depends on the topic. Sometimes reddit, sometimes on here, etc.