Are YOU a yahoo?

You'd have to be to look for answers on Yahoo Answers.
 

Said website was one of the earliest shocks in my web surfing career. And unlike many websites, it hasn't really grown - it just goes on and on, in all its glorious ignorance. Which makes perfect sense, considering its concept (for people who know nothing, by people who know nothing).
 

Yahoo Answers often come up among prominent search results. And sometimes, a snippet of a sentence catches my eye. That's how I have gained some insight into the mind-bending dimensions of ignorance that is crippling the world.

And let's not even go into the "expertise" of the respondents.

Just yesterday I happened to see a question asking whether Epsom salts really work for constipation.

The "best answer", chosen by the asker, started thusly: "Yuck! I've never even heard of that", followed by an offer to explain the "scientific background" of constipation.
 

This person claims to know the "scientific background" for constipation - but has never even heard of Epsom salts, one of the most widely prescribed OTC remedies? (And BTW: no, it doesn't work for everyone.)

I think impersonating "experts" should be strictly prohibited, actually.
 

But what really gets me is this sort of question: 
"What is a reduction sauce?" 
(This is an actual question on YA.) 

If you invest the same amount of energy, time and grey cells by typing this same question - or even just "reduction sauce" - into the search box of any search machine, you will get this, the first three results being:


Reduction (cooking) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Reduction-Sauce Basics: The Splendid Table


What is a Reduction Sauce?


Apparently there are lots and lots of people who do not even think of finding the answer to their questions by searching for them directly (we're talking about very basic knowledge, not requesting personal opinions)... but they do know how to find Yahoo Answers?

Some even request homework help - instead of simply entering their query in the search machine. 

It's as if the thought of using Google (or any other search machine) for something else than just going to Yahoo Answers has never occurred to them.

What I mean is, how stupid - or functionally illiterate - can you be to be unable to use a search machine for finding answers directly and would rather waste time waiting for others to Google up the answers?

Do you understand why this is alarming, to say the least?

Of course you do. If you did not, you would never be caught reading this blog. :)
You'd be on Yahoo Answers.

And you wouldn't even know why it is so appropriate that it should be called - yahoo.

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