“Google Answers... Everything”

In Google's constant search for ways to become profitable without compromising the integrity of their core feature (the search engine), they've come up with a new idea that I really like. Google Answers.

I'm not claiming that this will be the key to their profitability, because I'm not sure if I like this for business reasons. But the idea of intelligent people being paid to simply answer questions on any subject, with Google acting as the service broker (and probably, the most significant source of many of the answers); well, that's very cool.

The business question is whether or not anyone will use this service, as the questions aren't answered for free. However, there's no set price for the answers: you specify how much you're willing to pay when you ask the question, and the question is only answered if you offer enough money. The answerer gets 75% of the price, and chooses which questions to answer.

Google is already an information clearing house... now it's also hoping to be an information consulting services broker. I hope it works out for them, but honestly I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay for this service. (Maybe I'm not part of their target market, though.)