Jabbits Beta Answers and Questions

Jabbits.com is an interactive Q & A startup site similar to Yahoo! Answers with a video twist. The site is aimed at the video and community based search engine segments of Web 2.0. Essentially, Jabbits is a consumer research tool that allows users to upload video questions from web-cams, mobile phones or camcorders that will provoke video answers. The idea is quite intriguing, but its functionality is dependent on the site's popularity and diversity. The market for this type of educational tool is really wide open, so let's see if Jabbits can cut the mustard.

The most innovative aspect of this startup is in the potential for companies or researchers to compile market or other research data across the market spectrum. Given the massive number of people with video capability today, the utility of such a portal could be enormous. Jabbits offers a way for companies to buy research data or technical answers from the community at large via their portal.

Companies can post questions in the “Research Questions” section on Jabbits and potential responders then fill out questionnaires so that the companies can evaluate demographic, qualitative or other factors to choose a cross section of responders. The companies pay the qualified respondents for answering the questions. So Jabbits has monetized or connected both sides of the market equation.

In principal the idea is a very innovative and sound one, and the more humanistic feel of such Q & A discourse is especially attractive. In a press release via PRWeb, Ben Little, Co-Founder of Jabbits elaborates so:

“The online question and answer space has gained dramatic traction over the past year. Several well-known companies have launched successful Q&A sites, but none have combined interactive user-generated video. Jabbits is entertaining, but it is much more than that. It engages users in a format that prompts answers to their questions in face-to-face interaction instead of a text-only format. Adding the human element establishes credibility that text-based sites can never achieve.”

The Take

Many Web personalities and experts are very big on using Web 2.0 as an educational tool. Sites like Jabbits appear to be addressing this market, but have not yet fully caught on for some reason. Jabbits has a great UI and organization, with the potential and obvious capability (with additional add-ons) to not only entertain people but to provide answers in a way unheard of just a couple of years ago. There seems to be an impasse or two that this sector is having trouble with. I expect part of the problem is the time involved in making even the shortest of video answers and then there is the question of linking research in with video. Unless there is some way of commercializing the video or somehow using its relative personality, I don't think we are there yet in a business sense.

The motivational aspect for business and responders seems attractive and there are quite a few research topics on the site now. One thing that I noticed immediately was the uncluttered way Jabbits makes use of their Flash. The ability to ask or answer questions either privately or publicly is both helpful and a fore gone conclusion also. The best thing I can say about the tool is that “It gets her done” in its ability to present the Q & A.

What Else?

On the practical side Jabbits should combine with a data analysis entity so that all the potential resources could be aggregated, sorted and analyzed for some type of market sector solution. Jabbits addresses a slice of the research segment, but does not present a wholly viable business solution for the research venue. The people, questions and answers provide a striking personality to the site, but something is missing. Some type of criteria for qualifying responders to personal technical questions might help, but the business end of the site has a much larger hurdle. 

A rather flippant take I have on the site would be to dissect the topical categories into one for smart people and another for dumb asses. I think if many people could objectively view how uninformed and ridiculous they appear on video answering questions, then more of us would get really good at editing. Many of the people on the site now obviously have great cameras and know how (sort of)  to use them. Most of their obvious qualifications to provide answers leave a lot to be desired. Perhaps some type of QA DA tag for users to questions or answers with would be in order. At least this aspect would make the Jabbits experience even more fun and a learning experience for some.

The bottom line is the site can be very useful for people with video cameras who have questions or answers. As far as the design and Web 2.0 characteristics the site has all that. I like it very much, but I am still looking for an answer as to exactly how research and video can be more viably connected. I hope they solve this dilemma