Yedda, an Israeli social knowledge sharing startup, launched just a few months ago and takes a fresh approach to knowledge sharing online. Yedda helps answer questions online by proactively seeking and empowering people to help. Yedda does this by leveraging:
"...two patented technologies – a unique semantic analysis engine and a smarter questions distribution algorithm. These two technologies are implemented on top of a learning system which dynamically adjusts its behavior and learns real world trends (as opposed to using a fixed taxonomy)."
These technologies help to reach out to interested individuals via email or RSS in search for assistance in answering a particular question. This is definitely a unique approach as most Q & A sites wait for a grazing individual to come along and answer a question. Some sites even resort to paying users for answers. I think Yedda's strategy is a good one since I am a lot more likely return to the site to help with a question if I am contacted about it and it is an area of interest.
Yedda is organized by tags which correspond to topics of interest. Users can subscribe to various tags like web 2.0 questions for example. You might also notice that Yedda is also the only Q & A site that allows users to place HTML and images into the text of posted questions further differentiating it from the competition. Finally, Yedda offers a number of widgets that listed here and can be explained as follows:
1.) Yedda Ask Widget – Offers a new way for bloggers to communicate with their readers. Once you add this widget to your blogs, you provide your readers with a way to ask you – and everyone else who interested in your blog topics – a question.
2. Yedda FAQ Widget – Provides fresh FAQ content to your blog based on your blog topics.
3. My Yedda Profile Widget – Flaunt your hard-earned reputation from Yedda – your answers and your rating by displaying on your blog or web site.
Bottom-line: While there are a number of online Q & A site out there on the web, Yedda puts a fresh spin on online knowledge sharing by going out looking to people to help you find an answer. This strategy may make Yedda a winner in a highly competitive space which has surprisingly already claimed the life of Google Answers.