Knowledge has always been a cornerstone of human civilization. Up until less than a century ago schools, books, and mouth to mouth conversations were the mainstay of knowledge. Today, however, the Internet and cell phones have revolutionized our world. Google has been the main driver in bringing knowledge to people of all classes and means. The phrase "google it" in response to someone's question has become so common that it has even been added to the Merriam Webster Dictionary.
Nonetheless, Google cannot take all the credit. Use of search and answer engines has become so important to our society, that these engines have become a must . As search engines and answer engines evolve, their use on mobile phones and tablets has also evolved, creating a need for a mobile application that can answer a range of questions easily and factually. Quask, a new mobile application, is definitely the best mobile question answer application out there. Initially, however, let us look at the search and answer engines that already exist. These fall into several categories.
Popular Search Engines
First, there are the popular search engines, that can answer questions, but are more geared toward searching the Internet for websites and general information. Don't expect personal answers to specific questions from these engines. Such search engines include sites such as Google, Bing, and Info.com. Google is the earliest of these engines. The company began its development in 1996 with the purpose of making large quantities of information available to the public. In 2011 Google is more popular than ever, having hit the one billion visitor mark. For use as an instant answer tool Google is very practical, but is somewhat difficult to use on a mobile phone.
Bing was launched in 2009 as an offspring of Windows Live Search and MSN Search. Bing's goal was to rival Google in popularity. Early commercials for Bing vied for the engine's uniqueness apart from Google by pointing out its different point of view. Bing provides instant answers in areas such as sports, finance, and translation. However, Bing has yet not been able to throw off the Google mold.
Info.com is an example of one of many smaller offshoot search engines from Google that are basically the same in function, and even use the same databases. Yandex is another example of a Russian Google offshoot. Most of these Google imitators are not very well-known and inaccessible through mobile devices.
Popular Answer Engines
Second, there are answer engines built specifically for use on the Internet, without taking mobile devices too seriously. The main difference between this group and the search engine group, is that these sites are geared toward the visitor asking specific questions, that are then answered either from a database of answers, by other site users, or by a site employee. Many of these answer engines exist, and most have a slightly different question category. The most general answer engines include Yahoo Answers, Ask.com, ChaCha, Answers.com, and Askville.
Yahoo Answers is perhaps the most well-known and popular of these engines. Answers are left open to any category, however, all answers are answered by other site users. Sometimes this can be very helpful, but at other times this can simply lead to opinion wars. Yahoo Answers is not the first choice when asking questions that need factual answers. Askville is the Amazon version of Yahoo Answers.
Ask.com is different in that it lets you ask any question, but tries to find answers in search engines instead of from site users. This makes finding the precise answer to your question somewhat harder, and it makes you do more of the work. One nice addition on the Ask.com website is its encyclopedia. If you have general questions that can be answered by an encyclopedia, Ask.com is for you.
ChaCha enables visitors to ask any question they want, and also lets you browse previously answered questions by category. ChaCha is proud to be "Powered by People" instead of a search engine - much like Yahoo Answers. Overall ChaCha also seems to be somewhat more fact driven and controlled than Yahoo Answers - a plus for this answer engine.
Answers.com is partially powered by Wikipedia, hence it also goes by WikiAnswers. Besides letting Answers.com users answer your questions, this site also pulls from experts. Not a bad answer engine if you are looking for factual answers.
Topical Answer Engines
More specific answer engines include sites such as About.com, START, and WolframAlpha. About.com deals with many different topics, but mainly defines ideas and concepts in general such as American History, Autism, and Bodybuilding. After short definitions and articles answering a question, About.com then points to other websites that may help you as well. About.com definitely won't get you a spoon-fed answer, but rather promotes the hands-on approach.
START, or "http://start.csail.mit.edu/", is a website that bases all its questions and answers in four categories - Geography, Science and Reference, Arts and Entertainment, and History and Culture. Start calls itself the "Natural Language Question Answering System" and claims to be the world's first web-based question answering system. The wonderful thing about START is that it gives factual sources for all its answers. START is wonderful for academic research, but not accessible easily through mobile devices.
WolframAlpha, a "computational knowledge engine," is an answer engine for math and science that was originally designed for the web, but also has mobile applications. Anything "you want to calculate or know about" is game here.
Mobile Answer Engines
Finally, there are those search and answer engines designed specifically for mobile use. These applications include Goby, Siri, Vark, and more. Goby is specifically designed to help you find things to do and places to go on your mobile phone. Goby allows you to enter what you would like to do, as well as where and when you want to do it, and then spits out a list of activities for you. Obviously the scope of such an application is very limited.
Siri is more advanced than Goby, as it allows to search for anything you could need on the go - places to stay, restaurants to eat at, and more. Siri also allows you to both type or speak your question into your mobile device. However, Siri still does not allow for as broad of a scope of questions as ChaCha, for example, and is only available for iPhones.
Vark, or Aardvark, is Google's attempt at a mobile application. This application allows you to ask a broader scope of questions on your mobile phone, which are then answered by other users much as with Yahoo Answers. Once again this limits the factuality of responses, but it is the first step to integrating answer engines and mobile applications on a broader basis.
To answer the call for the need of an all around answer engine on a mobile application, Quask has been created. The beauty of Quask is that it can provide general answers, as well as factual answers, unlike Vark or Siri. Questions can be entered in Quask either through typing or speaking, and Quask will then respond with the spoken answer out loud. Quask is the best mobile question answer application, and is available for Android, Windows Phone 7 phones, as well as on iPhones.
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