Now you can ask Aardvark a question via Twitter:
- Just include ‘@vark’ and a question mark (’?') in your tweet
- Aardvark will find the perfect person to answer, and Direct Message you their response in a few minutes
(Set up Aardvark to recognize your Twitter handle here: http://vark.com/profile/accounts)
You could tweet something like…
“What’s the best new sushi restaurant in Manhattan with the freshest fish? @vark”
…or…
“Can you recommend an interesting contemporary novel for a weekend away, maybe something like Michael Chabon? @vark”
…or…
“How should I format the template for my tech blog to increase revenue from adsense - what really works? @vark #blogging”
…or anything else.
How does Aardvark find an answer?
Aardvark searches the tens of thousands of people in your extended social network — everyone you’re connected to on Facebook (other social networks soon!), webmail address books, and so forth — in order to discover the perfect person to answer your question.
Then Aardvark contacts them on your behalf, bringing your question to their attention, and letting them volunteer to answer if it’s convenient. This saves you the social cost of contacting someone and asking for a favor — and it saves your would-be answerer from feeling pressured to help.
(Hint: And if you don’t want to broadcast your question to everyone in the world, you can simply Direct Message your question to Aardvark: e.g., “d vark Does anyone know… ?”)
Why did you build this now?
Because our users asked for it!
People want to be able to tap into the knowledge and experience of everyone in their extended social network, regardless of whether they are asking a question via IM, email, SMS, or Twitter. Aardvark fits right inside existing communication channels as a contact, so sending Aardvark a question is as simple as sending a question to a friend.
We’ve added Twitter integration as part of our broader strategy to make Aardvark available everywhere, through all existing digital communiation channels: Instant Messaging through Gchat/AIM/ MSN and email are available already (with more IM networks right around the corner), and a few exciting mobile channels are currently in testing.
Aardvark is all about providing the questioner with a magical experience of getting any question answered in about five minutes, and providing the answerer with a gratifying experience of helping someone out in a moment of need. We think asking questions via Twitter is a natural way to bring this experience to more people.
Let us know what you think!
8 Comments
Wow! this is super useful if it works.
*off to try it now*
This is great!
People already use twitter for this so here’s they’ll leverage both their twitter followers and vark network at once. Also this will give vark great exposure, great feature!
This is a great idea! I hope this works out well for you guys, human powered searches show you “get it.”
I feel the same way. I’ve used Vark on Twitter in private beta and it worked great. Now that the service is public, I have a feeling it’s going to become one of the most useful applications on Twitter. Next step, Groups, and then watch out.
I’ve used Aardvark several times. The idea and the structure are very good, but the quality of the answers is not. You usually get no answer at all, and you often get micro answers from people who may not care about being truly helpful. Plus there is a divide in the value of the answer given vs received: “what’s a good restaurant in Soho”, the answer “Zilli” is not very helpful even if it is right, it’s just another keyword to search for, but the answerer may love the restaurant and feel it’s a satisfactory answer.
Can we use Twitter for educational activities?
How does Aardvark find an answer? That’s a question!
Can we use Twitter for educational activities?
never heard of ardvark, but when it comes out I would surely like to ask it a few questions Some searches on google lead to more confusion than answers.
8 Trackbacks
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[...] can read more about it at the official announcement or watch the TechCrunch video [...]
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