Kudos to the Live Search team for planning a Question and Answer service.
:: bonk :: to them for titling the post “Happy Cinco de Mayo!”. Dweebs.
A QnA format (I saw it first in the Ask Jeeves interface, years ago) as a means to enable 'regular' users the opportunity to find anwers they need.
From the post:
Ultimately, QnA will be deeply integrated with Windows Live Search, providing a rich, integrated searching service – enabling you to search and find answers on the Web, or from experts on any given topic as part of your search experience.
Exactly. Spot on, guys.
The real value of search is results. It's important that anyone, from anywhere can get the answer they seek. Some time ago, I posted “Search: MSN and Google, et. al”, into which I discussed search 'intent' as a way to improve relevance and search results.
In that post, I note that technical users are more forgiving of search interfaces (I am, at least). The QnA format will certainly broaden the audience.