Ask For Cents
February 13th, 2006I just learned about Ask For Cents from the Amazon Web Services Blog. It uses the Mechanical Turk Workforce to put users in touch with experts who can help answer questions. During the alpha stage, the questions are free so, for kicks, I sent in this one.
“Would you be able to tell me which libraries within 20 miles of my home (Zip Code - 11787) carry the book, “Consider the Lobster”, by David Foster Wallace?”
I’m curious to see what happens.
Update - This is the answer I received back (from a .za e-mail address), after 10 minutes:
“Yes, I would be able to, all I would have to do is search the libraries catalogs in your area. Now that you know I am able to, would you like to rephrase your question?”
Okaaaaay. So, I’ll rephrase:
“Which libraries within 10 miles of my home (zip 11787) have the book “Consider the Lobster”?
Let’s see what happens now.
2nd Update - 5 minutes later, I get this:
“Smithtown Library lists it as “Check Shelf” so a good chance. Commack does not, but I can’t tell about the branch libraries”
Pretty good. Even though I’m not sure why I was asked to rephrase the question, I did get a good response back. Smithtown is my home library and Commack is the next town over. That said, I can’t borrow new books from Commack, but this person had no idea that I couldn’t. I guess there is something to be said of being local.
So, overall, not bad for one question. If you want to try it out, send a question in an e-mail to q@askforcents.com with a blank subject line and the question in the body.