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Solving Life's Little Mysteries With The Help Of The Internet

(NAPSI)-Why does the United States have a military base in Cuba? Why is New York City nicknamed "The Big Apple?" Is it true that there are blue-tinted people living in the mountains of Kentucky?

In the days before the Internet, finding the answers to these questions would have required slogging through encyclopedias and newspaper archives. Today, answers to life's little mysteries can easily be found with some simple searching.

A great place to start is Ask Yahoo! (http://ask.yahoo.com). First launched in 1998, it's a fun and entertaining service run by Yahoo!'s searchers.

From the sublime (What is Zen?) to the ridiculous (How do they shoot a person from a cannon without injuring him?), readers can find the answer to almost anything on Ask Yahoo!. Since the service keeps an archive of answers, readers may find that they can satisfy almost any curiosity right at their fingertips.

Ask Yahoo! is the only online service available that uses human beings to provide answers to life's most puzzling questions for free. Each day, the Yahoo! Search editorial team chooses the questions that are the most interesting, entertaining, original or timely. They then conduct a comprehensive online search to find the most relevant and meaningful answer to the day's most compelling question. But they don't stop there.

"Along with finding answers to our readers' questions, we also provide a step-by-step process explaining how the answer was uncovered," said Srinija Srinivasan, editor-in-chief at Yahoo!, Inc. "So, Ask Yahoo! is not only plain good fun, but also a great way to learn how to search more effectively on your own with tricks of the trade from expert searchers."

Who Asks Yahoo!?

On an average day, Ask Yahoo! receives questions from readers of all ages looking to unravel some of the world's puzzles. Teachers frequently go to the site for answers to social studies and science questions that have left them stumped. Parents often consult it to help answer their children's questions. In some cases, kids go straight to the source (Why am I right-handed, but my brother is left-handed?).

But, if you're a student looking for homework answers, and you're thinking about asking Yahoo!, you may want to think again!

"We receive a lot of questions that sound suspiciously like homework questions," said Srinivasan. "Don't worry teachers, we always avoid answering them!"

As for other questions that Ask Yahoo! avoids answering?

"Don't even get me started on the one about the chicken and the egg," added Srinivasan.

That's likely a question that keeps getting "hatched" time and time again. Looking for a little enlightenment of your own? Go ahead and Ask Yahoo! at http://ask.yahoo.com.

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