Aardvark is a must see! O.k., so this is not about the animal (everyone know the Liger is the best animal EVER).
I want you introduce to the most amazing, new web service, aardvark. Here's their one liner, "Aardvark was conceived as the first Social Search engine: a way to find people, not web pages, that have specific information." It's a simple concept in theory:
- Identify and connect a network of people (LOTS of people - all over)
- Aardvark is very smart to leverage multiple, mature networks that we already propagate
- Create multiple (infinite?) 'panels of experts' by allowing users to self select their expertise
- Open the network allowing users to ask and answer questions
- Questions are most likely evaluated and allocated to a topic. . .
- Then sent out to all folks within your 'network' with self-identified expertise in that topic. . .
- BAM. . . answers get sent to you!
Saturday evening, with the fixings for dinner in front of me, I was inspired to test the site with the below question, and was quite pleased with the speed and quality of the answers – though somewhat subjective:
- You (that's me): What's the best spice to stir-fry shrimp with?
- Christopher G.; 26 / M / Pembroke Pines, FL: We had some shrimp using some Bahamian spices (not sure what it was), maybe some Paprika, and Curry (I think) last night - tasted great!
- Donald J.; 36 / M / Washington, DC: For something different try hoisin, five spice powder, or Szechuan peppercorn
Pretty Awesome for a Saturday evening Q&A on stir-fry shrimp between Chicago, Florida, and DC!
While Aardvark is awesome, the potential for enterprise use is huge. Can you imagine building a similar internal support network that allows customers to asynchronously connect with the most appropriate internal resources – big wins on improved customer satisfaction/loyalty and support cost savings.
I could spend all Sunday afternoon thinking and writing about aardvark. . . but instead I'm going to have a beer before seeing Springsteen play in Milwaukee. . . with GA tickets!!! I'll be sure to tell you all about it. . .
Tell me what you think of aardvark and the concept potential. . . looking forward to hearing thoughts, opinions, and cons! Cheers
FYI, here's a great blog on social search: http://1xg0.sl.pt
Posted by: easiegmann | 11/16/2009 at 11:21 AM
Thanks for the great post on Aardvark! It was fun seeing your example. We've definitely discuss an enterprise version of Aardvark and hope to look at it more seriously early next year. I'd love to hear any other feedback you or your readers have - [email protected]
- Alison @ Aardvark
ps. Just as a heads up, the website is http://vark.com not aardvark.com
Posted by: Alison | 11/23/2009 at 05:16 PM
Alison,
Thanks for the heads up on the name/url discrepancy - I'll be sure to update that.
I can't speak more highly for aardvark; a food question came through about a South African flour, I passed it onto a friend of mine who worked there through peace corps, via her email address, and she was able to provide a very informative answer quickly. . . awesome stuff :-)
Posted by: easiegmann | 11/25/2009 at 10:21 PM